Bank Hapoalim Q3 profit down 22.5%

Dov Kotler / Photo: Gadi Dagon, ira prohorov
Dov Kotler / Photo: Gadi Dagon, ira prohorov

The decline was partly caused by a NIS 63 million write-down of the fair value of Turkish subsidiary Bank Pozitif.

Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI), under its new CEO Dov Kotler, released its third quarter 2019 results this morning. The bank posted a net profit in the third quarter of NIS 736 million, which compares with NIS 950 million in the corresponding quarter of 2018, representing a decline of 22.5%. The ratio of net profit to shareholders' equity was 7.6% in the third quarter of 2019, down from 10.7% in the corresponding quarter.

Bank Hapoalim posted a reduction in the fair value of Turkish subsidiary Bank Pozitif of NIS 63 million. Excluding the effects of this, net profit was NIS 798 million, giving a return on equity of 8.3%. Profit in the third quarter was also affected by a 0.7% decline in the Consumer Price index, which cost the bank NIS 76 million.

Bank Hapoalim distributed a divided of NIS 1 billion out of excess capital created by the sale of 65% of credit card company Isracard.

The bank's credit portfolio continues to grow. Since the beginning of this year, housing credit has grown by 7.2% to NIS 87.3 billion and commercial credit by 6.7% to NIS 40 billion. Net credit to the public totaled NIS 291 billion at the end of the third quarter, up 3% since the end of 2018.

Financing income from regular activity totaled NIS 2,387 million, which compares with NIS 2,356 million in the corresponding quarter, representing a rise of 1.3%. Fees and other income from activity in Israel fell 1.1%, from NIS 835 million to NIS 826 million.

Operating expenses fell 0.7% between the third quarter of 2018 and the third quarter of 2019 to NIS 1,970 million, among other things thanks to a lower compensation expense as the bank continued its streamlining program.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 20, 2019

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019

Dov Kotler / Photo: Gadi Dagon, ira prohorov
Dov Kotler / Photo: Gadi Dagon, ira prohorov
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