BankMuscat announces preliminary unaudited results

BankMuscat announces preliminary unaudited results for the year 2011

MUSCAT, 16 January 2011 - BankMuscat (SAOG), the leading financial services provider in the Sultanate, announced the preliminary unaudited results for the year 2011. The Banks preliminary unaudited net profit is RO 117.5 million for the year ended 31 December 2011 compared to RO 101.6 million reported for the year 2010, an increase of 15.6 per cent.

The key highlights of the results for the year ended 31 December 2011 are as follows:

1) Net interest income increased by 13.3 per cent to RO 212.1 million in 2011 from RO 187.2 million reported during the year 2010. Increase in net interest income is attributable to improvement in net interest margin and asset growth.

2) Non-interest income at 82.1 million was higher by 5 per cent compared to the year 2010.

3) Operating expenses for the year ended 31 December 2011 was at RO 120.9 million, an increase of 17.5 per cent as compared to 2010. Increase in operating expenses is attributable to higher manpower cost and operating expenses related to investment in technology and facilities.

4) Impairment for credit losses for the year ended 31 December 2011 was RO 56.2 million as against RO 45.6 million in 2010. Increase in impairment for credit losses was mainly due to creation of general provision in line with the loan growth.

5) Share of loss from associates was RO 3.5 million in 2011 as against RO 12.6 million in 2010. The reduction in share of loss from associate was due to lower losses from BMI Bank in 2011 as compared to 2010.

6) Net loans and advances increased by 20.2 per cent to RO 4,819 million as against RO 4,008 million as at 31 December 2010.

7) Customer deposits, including CDs, increased by 31.7 per cent to RO 4,850 million as against RO 3,681 million as at 31 December 2010.

Amounts in RO millions

The Bank shall release the audited results along with complete set of audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2011 after the necessary approval by the Board of Directors on January 24, 2012. The draft annual financials for the year 2011 is subject to approval of Central Bank of Oman.