Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited (HMB): ‘Hold’ maintained on limited upside – By JS Research

<ul><li><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:medium;">We maintain &lsquo;Hold&rsquo; on Habib Metropolitan Bank (HMB), following availability of 1H2018 accounts.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:medium;">HMB currently trades at Jun-2019 P/B of 1.07x, offering limited upside to our exit P/B of 1.1x.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:medium;">As the bank&rsquo;s Tier II CAR has improved to 15.4% as at Jun-2018 (Mar2018: 14.7%), we maintain our dividend expectations for 2018 translating into a D/Y of 7%.</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:medium;">Higher costs pulled down the bank&rsquo;s NIMs to 2.56% during 1H2018 (- 14bps YoY).</span></li></ul>