Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: The net profits attributable to the owners of National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah (RAKBANK) hit AED 451.20 million in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, versus AED 220.82 million in Q1-22.
Basic and diluted earnings per share (EPS) jumped to AED 0.27 in Q1-23 from AED 0.13 as of 31 March 2022, according to the unaudited income statements.
The operating income hit AED 1.07 billion in the first three months (3M) of 2023, higher by 47.60% year-on-year (YoY) than AED 726.92 million.
The total assets climbed by 14.80% YoY to AED 68.87 billion in Q1-23 from AED 60 billion, while the clients’ deposits grew by 16.40% YoY to AED 46.36 billion from nearly AED 39.80 billion.
Raheel Ahmed, CEO of RAKBANK, commented: “In diversifying our income sources, we achieved robust growth on both sides of the balance sheet, across interest and fee incomes, and in all our segments.”
“In terms of building deeper customer relationships, we achieved strong growth in digitally active customers with digital transactions growing by 12% YoY,” Ahmed continued.
He indicated: “Being one of the largest [small and medium-sized enterprise] SME banks in the UAE, we continue to back entrepreneurs and startups by opening more than 4,000 business accounts in Q1-23, of which 1,600 accounts were opened for start-ups.”
“Similarly, we disbursed AED 571 million in business loans, out of which AED 394 million were disbursed for new business loan customers,” the CEO highlighted.
Meanwhile, the board members of RAKBANK agreed to increase the bank’s paid-up capital to AED 2.01 billion through the issuance of bonus shares accounting for 20% of the share capital.
Subject to obtaining regulatory approvals, the UAE lender will raise its capital by allocating AED 335.24 million from the retained earnings account.
Last year, RAKBANK recorded a surge in net profit attributable to the equityholders to AED 1.17 billion from AED 756.12 million in 2021.
