EARNINGS WATCH- CIB posts record first quarter earnings. Our friends at Egypt’s largest private-sector bank delivered a 17% y-o-y rise in net income to EGP 2.0 bn in 1Q2018 on revenues of EGP 4.2 bn (up 25% y-o-y). In comment on the results, management noted that top line and bottom line growth were more impressive when excluding the one off gains from the sale of investments in 1Q2018 and 1Q2017, which would bring both to 33%. Management attributed the growth to a surge in its local currency balance sheet and an impressive pick up in foreign currency lending. Furthermore, “CIB remains well-covered in terms of capital adequacy, as evident in its CAR surging to 18% by end of the first-quarter in 2018, comfortably above minimum regulatory requirements and sufficiently accommodating upcoming increases in minimum requirements in 2019, along with any unanticipated alterations in the macroeconomic environment.”

What’s the outlook? “We remain confident, in the Bank’s solid fundamentals to accommodate macroeconomic and regulatory developments, while reacting cautiously to interest rate movements in a way that does not forego the Bank’s profitability,” said management. The bank notes that it expects to see the impact of the two consecutive interest rate cuts this quarter on lending growth over the coming quarters. You can read CIB’s full earnings filing here (pdf).