KARACHI: The Board of Directors of Soneri Bank Limited, in their 218th meeting held in Karachi on Monday, approved the Bank’s financial statements for the quarter and nine months period ended 30 September 2026.
The Bank’s stable performance across all functional areas underscores its operational robustness and resilience, achieved despite a challenging macroeconomic landscape driven by surging international energy prices, persistent geopolitical tensions, and domestic energy tariff adjustments.
Against this backdrop of elevated headline inflation, which peaked at 11.7 percent before moderating to 10.3 percent by September 2026, and a tight monetary policy environment where the State Bank of Pakistan maintained the policy rate at 11.5 percent, the Bank successfully sustained its profitability and asset growth. Capitalising on rising private sector credit, strengthening external buffers, and Pakistan’s sovereign rating upgrade to B3, the Bank successfully managed risk while executing planned capital expenditure to expand its branch footprint and digital networks.
The Bank posted a Profit Before Tax (PBT) of Rs 6.027 billion and a Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs 2.941 billion for the period ended September 30, 2026, compared to Rs 9.604 billion and Rs 3.304 billion, respectively, in the prior period. Earnings Per Share (EPS) was recorded at Rs 2.6680 per share, as compared to Rs 2.9968 per share for the previous period. The stable bottom line demonstrates the Bank’s ability to maintain steady shareholder returns despite economic stress and geopolitical challenges.
Despite a challenging interest rate environment, the Bank maintained a robust gross revenue base. While Net Interest Income (NII) declined by 16.46 percent period-on-period by Rs 3.454 billion due to margin compression, this was effectively cushioned by an exceptional 16.54 percent surge in non-interest income, which reached Rs 7.596 billion up from Rs 6.518 billion last year. This strong performance in non-funded streams was driven by increase in foreign exchange income of Rs 0.813 billion and fee and commission income of Rs 0.143 billion, underscoring the Bank’s successful revenue diversification strategy.
The Bank’s investment portfolio increased to Rs 517.819 billion by period-end, reflecting an 8.05 percent growth over the previous year’s position of Rs 479.247 billion. Average volume of investments for the period also showed an upward trend, rising to Rs 505.890 billion compared to prior period of Rs 474.464 billion. Investment income, however declined to Rs 42.893 billion compared to prior period of Rs 46.189 billion. This contraction was primarily driven by a compression in net investment yields, which averaged 11.34 percent for the current period compared to 13.02 percent in the prior year.
In line with the State Bank of Pakistan’s downward policy rate revisions from last year, the Bank’s loan book underwent gradual repricing. This led to a contraction in net yields on advances to 11.14 percent, compared to 11.78 percent in the prior period.
Despite this yield compression, the Bank successfully expanded its lending activity, with average net advances growing to Rs 223.666 billion from Rs 195.572 billion last year. Strategic volume expansion completely neutralized the downward pressure on margins during the period. As a result, total income from advances increased by 8.17 percent, ending the period at Rs 18.628 billion compared to Rs 17.221 billion for the same period last year.
The Bank’s deposit base stood at Rs 736.484 billion at period-end, reflecting a decent growth of 6.88 percent as against the year-end 2025 position of Rs 689.106 billion. The portfolio demonstrated strong momentum in average volumes, which grew by Rs 86.736 billion as compared to the prior period. Notable improvements were achieved in the deposit mix, with the CASA ratio strengthening to 86.33 percent (December 2025: 81.86 percent) and the Current Account composition rising to 33.04 percent. This favourable shift, supported by a 12.06 percent growth in average current account volumes, successfully drove the cost of deposits down from 7.17 percent for the Nine months ended 30 September 2025 to 6.86 percent in the current period. The Bank remains committed to optimizing its funding mix and rationalizing costs while maintaining premium service standards. The Bank’s period-end net IDR slightly increase to 70.31 percent as against 69.18 percent as at year-end 2025.
The Bank’s borrowings were reported at Rs 65.749 billion as at September 30, 2026 versus Rs 61.644 billion as of year-end 2025, while overall costs during the nine months decreased to 10.38 percent as against 10.57 percent for the comparative period of prior year.
The Bank’s cost of funds decreased to 7.36 percent for the period ended September 30, 2026, down from 7.83 percent in the prior period. This reduction directly aligns with the downward policy rate revisions by the State Bank of Pakistan.
Non-Markup expenses were reported at Rs 20.616 billion for the period ended September 30, 2026 as against Rs 17.824 billion in the comparative period of 2025, indicating an increase of 15.67 percent, which coincides with elevated inflation levels during the period. However, this was in line with our expectations considering the Bank’s branch expansion plan, under which we achieved the milestone of opening 73 branches since September 30, 2025 and as of September 30, 2026, the total number of our branches stands at 691 branches. The Board has given firm directions, and the management remains committed on practicing rigorous cost control measures to keep costs within strict budgets, and with the inflation now expected to be contained in the medium term, we expect good progress in this area as well.
The Bank achieved a significant improvement in asset quality during the period ended September 30, 2026. Driven by effective recovery initiatives, the Non-Performing Loan (NPL) ratio declined sharply to 1.93 percent, down from 3.41 percent as of December 31, 2025. This reduction was supported by the strategic recovery & reclassification of Rs 0.525 billion into regular loans, alongside the contraction of Rs 0.739 billion in fully provisioned NPLs charged off into memorandum accounts. This favourable asset performance enabled a net reversal of Rs 1.514 billion in credit loss allowances, compared to a charge of Rs 0.077 billion in the prior period.
Despite this net reversal, the Bank sustained its prudent provisioning posture, strengthening its loan loss coverage ratio to 108.13 percent as compared to year end position of 96.77 percent. Management remains highly vigilant in monitoring the credit portfolio to prevent portfolio infection and preserve optimal coverage thresholds.
The Bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio as at September 30, 2026 stands at 12.93 percent, while the Leverage Ratio is at 3.14 percent. The Bank’s Liquidity Coverage Ratio and Net Stable Funding Ratios have been reported at 189.87 percent and 176.31 percent respectively, which are also comfortably above the regulatory requirements.
Credit Rating: During the period under review, the Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) has upgraded the Bank’s long-term entity rating to ‘AA’ (Double A). This upgrade represents a significant milestone, moving up from the previous long-term rating of ‘AA-’ (Double A minus). PACRA has also reaffirmed the short-term rating at the highest level of ‘A1+’ (A One Plus), with a Stable Outlook.
Furthermore, PACRA has upgraded the credit ratings of the Bank’s unsecured, subordinated, and listed Term Finance Certificates (TFC–3) issue of Rs 4 billion at ‘AA’ (Double A) [2025: ‘A+’ (Single A plus)], and the unsecured, subordinated, rated, listed, perpetual and non-cumulative TFC issue of Rs 4 billion at ‘A+’ (Single A plus) [2025: ‘A’ (Single A)], both with a Stable Outlook.
The upgraded entity and its instruments ratings reflect the Bank’s growing financial strength, sound corporate governance, prudent risk management, and consistent business performance. These ratings indicate a very low expectation of credit risk, a strong capacity for timely repayment of long-term financial commitments, and the highest capacity for timely repayment in the short term.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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