Hussein Abaza, a new chapter of CIB’s success story in Egypt’s banking sector

A robust career and a continuous journey of success pushed Hussein Abaza to lead the Commercial International Bank (CIB), one of Egypt’s largest private banks, to a new chapter in its success story in the Egyptian banking sector.

Abaza has been Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director since June 24, 2021 and Chief Executive Officer and a Member of the Board of Directors since March 2017. He assumed this position after a six-year run as CEO of Institutional Banking. Prior to this, Mr. Abaza was the Bank’s Chief Operating Officer and, from 2001 to 2010, its Chief Risk Officer responsible for managing credit, market, and operational risk across CIB. 

On the other hand, Abaza is a member of the Bank’s award-winning investor relations program, which has helped CIB grow its market capitalization over tenfold since 2008. 

Upon analyzing the investment strategy of Abaza during his tenure as CIB CEO and managing director; it was found that the bank has employed its resources more into financial investments and loans. Yet, the financial investments have got the lion share of the bank resources as it constitutes the highest relative weight of its total assets.

Thus, the financial investments obtained 44.62% of the bank’s total assets at the end of Q3-2022, compared to 40.60% at the end of 2020. However, and the banks loans to total assets ratio increased to 29.93% at the end of Q3-2022, compared to 27.89% at the end of 2020.

However, the bank’s financial investments to deposits ratio has increased to 52.94% at the end of September 2022, compared to 50.88% at the end of 2020. In addition, the loans to deposit ratio recorded 39.79% at the end of September 2022, compared to 39.87% at the end of 2020.

Thanks to such investment strategy, the CIB was able to continue its strong performance. As, the bank’s net profit jumped by 30.30% to record EGP 13.42 billion in 2021, compared to EGP 10.3 billion pounds in 2020 with an increase of  EGP 3.12 billion. Which lead for it occupy the second position on First Bank list of l fastest growing listed banks in term of net profits during 2021.

As for the bank’s net profits during 2022; it jumped by 23.36% to stand at EGP 12.21 billion during the first 9 months of 2022, compared to EGP 9.89 billion during the same period in 2021 with an increase of 2.31 billion.

Moreover, the return on assets (a measure of the bank’s efficiency in investing its assets) rose to 2.91% in 2021, compared to 2.53% in 2020, compared to 2.25% during the first 9 months of 2022. Thus, CIB has been ranked second on First Bank’s list of most efficient listed banks in terms of ROA in 9M-22.

CIB also succeeded in increasing the return on equity (a criterion for the bank’s efficiency in investing its shareholders’ assets) to 20.91% in 2021, compared to 18.52% in 2020. However, the bank’s ROEs reached 18.29% during the first 9 months of 2022 pushing it to rank fourth on First Bank index of Return on Equity (ROE) among listed banks.

Moreover, CIB’s assets portfolio jumped by 38.54% to record EGP 590.36 billion at the end of September 2022 compared to EGP 426.14 billion at the end of 2020 with an increase of EGP164.21 billion pounds.

However, the bank’s deposits portfolio ajumped from EGP 340.09 billion at the end of 2020 to EGP 497.58 billion at the end of September 2022, achieving a growth rate of 46.31%, and an increase of EGP 157.5 billion.

The financial investment portfolio increased by 52.25%, to record EGP 263.44 billion at the end of September 2022, compared to EGP173.03 billion at the end of 2020 with an increase of EGP 90.41 billion