Cairo – Mubasher: Commercial International Bank – Egypt (CIB) on Thursday announced achieving a year-on-year profit increase on the back of net interest income in the third quarter of 2017.

CIB recorded EGP 2.08 billion in net profits in Q3-17, a 22% year-on-year rise from EGP 1.7 billion, taking into consideration minority shareholders’ rights.

CIB’s Q3-17 results beat MubasherTrade Research’s estimates of EGP 1.976 billion by 5.6% and beat market consensus of EGP 1.924 billion by 8.5%.

Net interest income grew to EGP 3.5 billion in Q3-17 from EGP 2.5 billion in the year-ago period, CIB said in a filing to the Egyptian Exchange (EGX).

As for the first nine months of 2017, CIB logged EGP 5.6 billion in profits, a rise from EGP 4.45 billion recorded in the same period of 2016.

CIB recorded a 50% year-on-year surge in its loan portfolio in the nine-month period ended 30 September 2017, while deposits grew 7% compared to the fiscal year ended 31 December 2016, the statement showed.

In terms of standalone profits, CIB announced achieving EGP 5.6 billion in net profit in the nine-month period, up from EGP 4.4 billion in the year-ago period.

“We believe that CIB's fees and commissions income should improve in the coming period as the EGP flotation should reflect positively on customers' ability to open letters of credit for importing. This is positive for fees income and may lead to an increase in the lending growth,” MubasherTrade Research said in a note on the stock.

The year-on-year growth in earnings was attributed to higher net interest income by 40.9% and non-interest income. MubasherTrade Research’s estimates were 18.5% lower that CIB’s announced results.

“We maintain our view on CIB's future growth outlook. Keeping the same price target of EGP76 per share, which implies an expected total return of -0.5%, we maintain our Sell/Moderate Risk rating,” MubasherTrade Research concluded.

CIB had previously posted EGP 3.58 million in profits in the first six months of 2017, up from EGP 2.75 billion in the first half of 2016.

By 10:19 am Cairo time, CIB’s stock gained 0.82% to EGP 77.02, after a turnover of EGP 1.6 million.