Samba Bank’s profit saw a decrease of 22 percent in 2021 compared with the last year.

The bank’s annual profit decreased to Rs. 788 million in 2021 from over Rs. 1 billion recorded in 2020. The bank’s share price also dropped to Rs. 0.78 from Rs. 1.

The drop in profitability was attributed to a major hit received by the bank from one of the big corporates’ losses.

The bank earned revenue of Rs. 5.7 billion in 2021 as against Rs. 5 billion reported in 2020. The expenses also grew to Rs. 3.4 billion from Rs. 3 billion of the previous year.

Despite the dip in the profitability in the closing financial year, the bank’s assets and deposits witnessed consistent growth over the period of the last few years.

Expected Transition in Shareholding

The Saudi-based bank is witnessing a transition stage as its parent group Saudi National Group decided to divest its 86.5 percent shares in the bank.

Several companies have come up with a strong interest to acquire the banks including Askari Bank, Fatima Fertilizer, and United Bank Limited. These companies have received in-principle permission from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in recent weeks.

In the latest development, United Bank Limited (UBL) submitted a Public Announcement of Intention (PAI) to acquire up to 852,040,531 ordinary shares of Samba Bank Limited (SBL). The bank has appointed AKD Securities Limited as the manager to the offer.

Source: Pro Pakistani