Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB) aims to issue EGP 15bn worth of financial instruments to finance its expansion after rapid growth in 2019, the bank said in a Tuesday statement to the Egyptian Exchange.
However, the issuance is still subject to approval from the general assembly meeting scheduled in 15 March. The statement explained that the financial instruments would be issued in Egyptian or foreign currency.
The CIB reported 23% increase in consolidated net income to record EGP 11.8bn, or EGP 7.33 per share in 2019.
CIB’s management said: “The banking sector faced vigorous competition over market funds, which, alongside the new tax law’s enactment at the onset of the year, came in challenging the Sector’s growth prospects, confronted with an eventful outlook. However, CIB managed to deliver a new set of record results, posting top and bottom lines of EGP 23.bn and EGP 11.8bn over 2019, growing from last year by 24% and 23%, respectively. This is after normalising the EGP 1.82bn recycled in 2018 from unearned interest to interest income.”
Moreover, the statement indicated that the board aims to increase the bank’s paid-in capital by EGP 4.925bn to EGP 19.702bn through distributing one free share for every three existing shares.
Also, the board proposed a cash dividend of EGP 1.25 per share for 2019.
In quarter terms, the bank’s standalone revenues recorded EGP 6.15bn in the fourth-quarter (4Q) of 2019, up 18% from 4Q2018.
Accordingly, the statement added: “Moving into 2020, we remain positive about the economic outlook and we are confident about CIB’s ability to ride out market variations in light of the expected continuation of the monetary easing cycle, drawing on its proven record of resilient balance sheet fundamentals and effective management, besides its affluent capital buffer.”
