HSBC says H1 pre-tax profit falls 40% in Egypt

HSBC Plc says first-half profit before tax in Egypt has dropped 40 percent from a year ago to record $143 million.

The bank in Egypt posted profit before tax of $235 million at the end of June 2016.

HSBC Egypt’s Retail Banking and Wealth Management (RBWM) achieved profits worth $14 million at the end of June 2017. Commercial Banking made profits worth $27 million.

Global Banking and Markets at the bank registered profits worth $78 million; while Credit and Lending posted generated profits worth $24 million, the bank added.

The bank has attributed the fall basically to the floatation of the Egyptian pound in early November 2016, in which the dollar reached an average of 18 to the Egyptian pound during the first half of 2017, compared to 8 pounds in the same period last year.

Customer deposits slightly rose by 3.2 percent to $3.911 billion at the end of June 2017 from $3.790 billion in the same period last year.