KARACHI: The United Bank Limited (UBL) declared profit-before tax of Rs50.7 billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, a stellar growth of 29 per cent over the last year, a statement said on Thursday.

The earnings per share (EPS) stood at Rs15.33 (nine months of 2021: Rs18.59), with strong growth in the EPS to Rs5.64 in the third quarter of FY22 from Rs1.91 in the second quarter of FY22.

The bank remains well capitalised for the future business expansion with a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 18.4 per cent, which is around 7 per cent in excess of the regulatory minimum requirements.

The UBL declared dividends of Rs4/share for the third quarter of 2022, taking the overall dividend distribution to Rs13/share for the nine months ended September 30, 2022.

Strong revenue expansion of 34 per cent in 2022 was driven by all the core segments.

The gross revenues were reported at Rs94.9 billion for the period under review, with an increase of 34 per cent over the last year.

The net markup income grew significantly by 36 per cent, as a well-positioned loan and investment portfolio re-priced well during the year.

Maintaining a focus on the low-cost deposit mobilisation remained a priority across the network, resulting in an efficient cost of deposits, despite a rising rate environment.

A growth of 13 per cent in the current account portfolio along with the expansion in the core customers’ base, enabled the bank to improve its average current to total deposits ratio to 44.3 per cent from 42 per cent last year.

This contained the domestic cost of deposits to 5.9 per cent for the nine months of FY22, despite a sharp increase in the interest rate during the period, which enabled the bank to expand its net interest margins to 4.6 per cent this year against 3.8 per cent in the same period of the last year.

The non-funded income continued to grow and was recorded at Rs22.1 billion, which is 28 per cent ahead of the last year with strong build up in business momentum from new debit card acquisitions, trade flows across corporate clients, revenues from home remittances business across each major corridor and growing throughput levels across the cash management business.

Despite an exceedingly high inflationary environment and continued investment in the human resources, branch network and technology, the bank’s cost-to-income improved to 40 per cent in the nine months of FY22 from 44 per cent in the same period of the last year.

Serving 11 million customers across the nation — the deposit franchise remains the cornerstone of the bank.

UBL operates one of the largest networks in Pakistan with 1,338 branches and 1,445 automated teller machines (ATMs) along with the bank’s branchless banking proposition, UBL Omni spread across the country.

The network is augmented by the bank’s award winning and industry leading digital banking services, which together serve over 11 million customers nationwide.

UBL remains the preferred partner to the Pakistani diaspora with a market share of over 21 per cent within the home remittances space.

It is a key partner in the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) Roshan Digital initiative, having opened over 88,000 accounts, with the inflows crossing $700 million-mark recently.

The Branch Banking Group continues to provide the foundation for the bank’s core earnings. UBL’s domestic deposits averaged Rs1.6 trillion for the nine months of FY22, an increase of 7 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

The bank on-boarded 450,000 new current account relationships during the year, which resulted in a 13 per cent growth in the average current deposits. This was made possible by the growing momentum of good citizen product, a current account for active tax filers, which has grown to Rs22 billion this year.

As part of the bank’s diversity and inclusion agenda, UBL further enriched its exclusive product for women, “UBL Urooj” with a dedicated debit card and targeted alliances to meet the specific needs of women.

Since its launch, the portfolio has built over 21,000 account holders with Rs4 billion in deposits.
UBL continues to expand its intermediation role within all the key segments and regions, as the bank level performing advances averaged Rs647 billion in the period under review with a strong growth of 19 per cent.

The bank is serving and building on longstanding relationships, while leveraging a growing suite of digital capabilities.

We are integrating financial services across value chains within all major sectors. Deepening customers’ relationship through cross sell enabled the bank to record a 23 per cent growth in domestic trade and guarantee business income, with a 17 per cent growth in the earnings from cash management.

The bank continues to expand within the mid-market segment, as the average portfolio of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and agricultural loans recorded a 17 per cent growth over the last year.
The UBL Digital has been recognised as the best in the industry, showing that the bank’s innovation spirit leads the way.

The UBL’s digital banking services continue to be the hallmark in the Pakistani banking space. With its digital transformation strategy, the bank is actively delivering innovative digital solutions and providing easy access to the financial services in a seamless and convenient manner.

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