15/07/2017
Five local banks announced that the cash dividends by 63.3 percent for the first half of the current
year 2017 compared to the same time last year.
According to a report by Al Eqtisadia, the recommended distributions of the five banks amounted to 7.49 billion riyals,
compared to cash dividends of 4.58 billion riyals, or 2.91 billion
riyals, according to data issued by the banks via Tadawul.
The jump in the cash dividends of the
declared banks is significant compared to the growth of the past years,
where the dividends jumped Al Rajhi 100 percent, and Saudi French by 90
percent and 83 percent of the Al Ahli Bank.
These distributions reflect the financial strength of the banking
sector in Saudi Arabia and are expected to be reflected in increased
investment opportunities in the sector, especially as these
distributions increase the returns, enhancing the
opportunities and tools of these banks.
It is also expected that these distributions will be reflected
directly and indirectly by injecting new liquidity. In addition, the
rest of the banks are expected to continue this approach by increasing
the rate of distribution if there are no opportunities
for investment and growth as well as remaining assets.
These
cash dividends reflected the three most important owners of the banks.
The Public Investment Fund, the Social Insurance Fund and the Pension
Fund accounted for 31.9% of these allocations, reaching SR 2.38 billion
in the first half of this year compared to SR 1.53 billion for the same
period last year, last year and an increase of 978.4 million riyals.
The
sharing of the Public Investment Fund from the cash dividends amounted to
about SR 1.2 billion representing about 16% of the total distributions
of the five banks. The share of social insurance amounted to about 870.7
million riyals representing about 11.6% of the distributions and about
316.9 million riyals About 4.2 per cent of the declared allocations to the five banks.
According
to the analysis, June earnings are expected to be around 3.77 billion
riyals, making second-quarter profits near 11.47 billion riyals, about 1
percent below the corresponding period. From last year.
During
the first quarter of this year, Saudi banks had a net profit of about
11.65 billion riyals, the third highest quarter profit since 2008.