Housing Bank to distribute 32% cash dividends

AMMAN — The Housing Bank for Trade and Finance (HBTF) announced on Saturday in a press statement that it will be distributing cash dividends at a rate of 32 per cent as endorsed by the shareholders during an ordinary general assembly meeting. 

HBTF Chairman Michel Marto said in the statement that HBTF's pretax profit amounted to JD177 million last year, the highest since its establishment in 1973 and 9.2 per cent higher than the JD162.1 million generated during 2014.

Net profit after tax stood at JD124.7 million, JD0.8 million higher than the amount at the end of 2014, when profits reached JD123.9 million, Marto added.

He attributed the limited increase in profit after tax to the increase in income tax from 30 per cent in 2014 to 35 per cent as of the beginning of 2015.

He indicated that the bank's assets went up by 4.3 per cent reaching JD7.9 billion at the end of last year and that customers' deposits totalled JD5.8 billion, 6.4 per cent higher than the total at the end of 2014.

Marto revealed that credit facilities surged by 28.6 per cent to JD3.5 billion.

At the end of the meeting, the board elected Abdul Ilah Khatib as a free-time chairman of the board and Abdullah Mubarak Al Kahlifah as vice chairman, and confirmed Ehab Saadi as director general of the bank, the statement concluded.