Morocco’s largest financial services group Attijariwafa Bank has reported an 83.3-percent surge in profits to MAD4.58 billion ($497.62 million) in the first nine months of its 2021 financial year on the back of a gradual recovery in economic activities.
Attijariwafa Bank is a Moroccan multinational commercial bank and financial services conglomerate based in Rabat, Morocco.
As of Sept 30, the bank had assets valued at MAD586.1 billion ($63.68 billion), making it the largest commercial banking group in Africa’s fifth-largest economy, Morocco, and one of the largest banks in Africa under the governance of members of the Alaouite Royal Family of Morocco.
Through Societe Nationale d’Investissement (Al Mada), the Royal Family holds a beneficial 45.3-percent stake in the financial services group.
Figures contained in the group’s financial results revealed that its profit surged from MAD2.5 billion ($271.62 million) in the first nine months of 2020 to MAD4.58 billion ($497.62 million) in the corresponding period of its current financial year.
The solid double-digit growth in earnings came off the back of an increase in net-interest income from MAD11.83 billion ($1.29 billion) to MAD12.11 billion ($1.31 billion), which was optimized by slower growth in its operating expenses.
Attijariwafa Bank Chairman Mohamed El-Kettani said the group consolidated its support for businesses, households, communities and economies in the period under review, as the bank’s operations recovered despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its operating environment.
El-Kettani underscored that the group’s operating income increased by 36.1 percent to MAD7.1 billion ($771.42 million) against the MAD4.1 billion ($445.5 million) it posted in 2020 thanks to slower growth in costs and the gradual normalization of the cost of risk.
As of the time of the drafting of this report, shares in the leading bank were worth MAD487.3 ($52.95), 86-basis point lower than in its opening price on Fri., Nov. 19.
At the current price, the stake of the Royal Family of Morocco in Attijariwafa Bank is valued at MAD47.48 billion ($5.16 billion).
