Washington
Widespread economic weakness in Attijariwafa Bank’s international branch countries have ultimately caused a financial slowdown, with first-half net profit falling 4.8% to 2.2 billion dirhams—according to Reuters.
Attijari’s auxiliaries, located in Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Togo, and in Europe, have exposed the bank to weak economies.
Additionally, in Morocco, the domestic market has suffered from setbacks due to bad loans totaling 7.1 billion dirhams in the first half of 2013—a nearly 1% increase since the end of 2012.
The bank, which is owned by the Moroccan holding SNI, has recently undertaken various expansion projects including floating foreign-currency-denominated bonds—a $500 million USD endeavor—to boost the bank’s liquidity and prepare for future expansion. In the short term, net banking income had risen 4.7% due to the consolidated deposits and loans—showing increases of 7.9% and 1.6% respectively.
Attijari’s board has proposed to post 1.81 billion dirhams for the first half of 2013—a .94% increase from 2012.
