First Abu Dhabi’s 2022 profit up 7% to ‘historic high’ of $3.65bn

WAM

First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE’s biggest lender, reported a seven percent rise in 2022 net profit on Thursday despite its fourth-quarter profit falling 26 percent from a year earlier.

FAB posted AED13.4 billion ($3.65 billion) in net profit for the full year, up from AED12.5 billion in 2021. Fourth-quarter net profit was nearly AED2.5 billion, down from AED3.3 billion from a year earlier.

FAB missed analyst estimates of AED2.95 billion in fourth-quarter net profit, according to Refinitiv data.

Chief executive Hana Al Rostamani said the full-year net profit was “a historic high for our bank.”

“Strong business volumes have underlined healthy pipeline execution across our diversified business model,” she said, adding that FAB continued to consolidate its presence in priority markets, including in Egypt through FABMisr.

FAB said fourth-quarter net profit was lower than the previous quarter due to “prudent provisioning and conservative asset valuations.”

Net impairment charges for the year were at AED2.8 billion, up seven percent from 2021, including AED1.1 billion in the fourth quarter.

FAB’s board recommended cash dividend of AED0.52 per share.

Separately on Thursday, FAB said it has appointed Lars Kramer as group chief financial officer, reporting directly to Al Rostamani.

Kramer joins FAB from Netherlands-based ABN AMRO, where he has been CFO since June 2021. Karim Karoui, FAB’s group head of mergers and acquisitions, will be interim GCFO and will transition to Kramer when he joins FAB in the second quarter.

FAB had said in October that outgoing CFO James Burdett would retire and remain in place until a successor is appointed.