September 2009
His Excellency, Mr. Eisa Al-Eisa, the MD & CEO of Samba Financial Group has announced its financial results for the first half ended June 30, 2009. Samba's 1H09, our Net Income was SR 2515 million - higher 4% compared to SR 2425 million over the same period last year. Total Operating income at SR 3807 million compared to SR 3667 million last year registered a growth of 4%. The earnings per share for the period was SR 2.79 compared to SR 2.69 for the same period in 2008. As a result of this, our annualized ROA and ROE were 2.83% and 24.81% respectively whereas we were consistently successful in maintaining strong Revenue to Expense ratio of 3.82 . We were also able to keep expenses growth at 3.5% compared to 2Q08.

In respect of 2Q09 net income attributable to the shareholders is SR 1243 million compared to SR 1224 million for the same period last year - an increase of 2%. Net Special Commission Income at SR 1305 million increased by 9% over last year.

The overall financial performance of the Bank continues to be strong given the current environment. Total assets are at SR 177.1 billion compared to SR 178.9 billion in December 2008, investments at SR 57.5 billion compared to SR 54.2 billion in December 2008 - up by 6% (mostly in Government securities). Total deposits were SR 138 billion, up 14% compared to 1H08. Samba continues to enjoy strong capitalization and balance sheet with total equity of SR 20 billion supporting total assets of SR 177 billion. We have been successful in maintaining the loan to deposit ratio at a comfortable level of 63%; well within the regulatory threshold of 85%. On one hand this means our ability to generate sufficient liquidity from customer deposits to fund our asset growth and at the same time provides us enough room to avail of any future growth opportunities in remaining part of 2009.