EFG-Hermes Q2 net profit down 66%

Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes posted a net profit of 27 million Egyptian pounds ($4.4 million) for the second quarter, a two-thirds decline from a year earlier when it was lifted by a dividend from a real estate investment.

The bank, which is planning a tie-up with Qatar’s QInvest to give it more capital to expand, earned 80 million pounds in the second quarter of 2011 when results included exceptional dividend income of 28 million pounds from SODIC.

However, revenue from its brokerage operations fell this year due to the lower trading volumes on markets in the region, while the treasury and capital markets business benefited from a rise in yields on the state treasury bills it holds.

“Rates on treasury bills have gone up more than four per cent and they have a huge investment in treasuries,” said Mohamed Seddiek, head of research at Prime brokerage.

EFG Hermes shares were up 2.5 per cent in relatively heavy volume on the Egyptian Exchange by 1144 GMT. The wider index of which it is part was up 0.2 percent.

Overall second-quarter investment banking revenue declined 13 per cent on a year ago to 195 million pounds but group operating revenue was up two per cent at 477 million pounds, with its Credit Libanais retail bank achieving 3 percent growth in net profits.

Seddiek said the results seemed to be in line with expectations overall, except for a decline in assets under management of six per cent from the first quarter of 2012.

“They keep on losing funds and don’t seem to have reached the ground yet, although markets flattened over the last period,” he said.