Major Mena banks to post 29% jump in fourth- quarter earnings, EFG Hermes says

Major Mena banks to post 29% jump in fourth- quarter earnings, EFG Hermes says

Major banks in the Middle East and North Africa are expected to post a 29 per cent annual increase in their aggregate fourth-quarter income, led by lenders in Saudi Arabia and the UAE amid continued economic recovery, Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes said.

Saudi Arabian banks included in the research by EFG Hermes are expected to report a 32 per cent growth in earnings for the last three months of 2021, the Egyptian bank said in a research note on Monday.

Lenders in the UAE are projected to post 36 per cent income growth, while Kuwait banks will be at 22 per cent, Egyptian lenders at 21 per cent, with Oman and Qatar institutions each growing by 16 per cent.

EFG Hermes, however, expects overall provisioning for bad loans to rise quarter-on-quarter in the last three months of 2021. This is driven partly by “seasonality” as banks tend to book higher credit costs in the fourth quarter after a review of credit portfolios with their respective regulators.

“The rapid spread of Omicron in the past few weeks ... may prompt banks to take a more cautious view on provisioning in the short term,” EFG Hermes analysts said.