Bank Hapoalim, headed by Dov Kotler, posted a net profit of NIS 1.207 billion for the third quarter of this year, its quarterly financials released this morning show. This represents a 48% increase in comparison with the NIS 816 million profit posted by the bank for the third quarter of 2020. Bank Hapoalim explained that the increase in profit stemmed from continued rapid growth in activity, reversal of credit loss provisions, and from the investment activity of Poalim Equity.
The bank's annualized return on equity in the third quarter this year was 11.8%, which compares with 8.8% in the corresponding quarter of 2020. For the first nine months of the year, Bank Hapoalim's profit is nearly NIS 4 billion, versus NIS 1.4 billion for the first nine months of 2020. Annualized return on equity for the first nine months of 2021 is 13.1%, versus 4% for the corresponding period of 2020.
The high profits, and the permit given by the Supervisor of Banks a few weeks ago to start distributing dividends from 2021 profits, allowed Bank Hapoalim's board of directors to declare a dividend of NIS 862 million, of which NIS 362 million represents 30% of the profit in the third quarter of 2021 and NIS 500 million is from the profit in the first half of the year. The dividend will be paid on December 8.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 15, 2021.
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