Egypt’s Banque du Caire first-half net profit climbs 7%

Banque du Caire (BdC), Egypt’s third largest public state-lender, reported on Monday a 7 percent year-on-year growth in net profit for the first half of the year.

According to BdC’s standalone financial statements, the bank made first-half net profit worth 1.8 billion Egyptian pounds ($114.4 million) from 1.7 billion pounds in the same period last year.

Growth was driven mainly by net interest income which rose to more than 5 billion pounds, from 4.9 billion pounds in the first half of 2020, marking a 3 percent annual rise, the bank added.

Net income from fees and commissions also increased by approximately 18 percent to 886 million pounds from 754 million pounds last year.

The bank’s operating income was 6.1 billion pounds in the first half, 4 percent up from 5.9 billion pounds in the comparable period last year.

Customers’ deposits also surged 10 percent to 178 billion pounds at the end of June buoyed the bank’s offering of diversified products at competitive interest rates.

The growth in first-half earnings came despite the increase in the size of expenses and investment to mainly upgrade its information technology infrastructure, BdC chairman Tarek Fayed said in a statement.