Half Year 2026 National Bank of Oman SAOG Earnings Call

Speaker #1: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to NBO's interactive session. I think I'll decline those, sorry. Today we will be discussing the half-year financial results for the period ended 30 June 2026.

[Company Representative] (National Bank of Oman): Salam Alaikum. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to NBO's interactive session. I think I'm declining those. Right. Today we will be discussing the H1 financial results for the period ended 30 June 2026. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone to keep their microphones muted throughout the presentation. We will open the floor for questions during the Q&A session. It is now my pleasure to introduce our esteemed management. We have Mr. Abdullah Al Hinai, our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Giridhar S Varadachari, our Chief Financial Officer, along with members from the finance team. Mr. Abdullah, the floor is yours.

Operator: Salam Alaikum. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to NBO's interactive session. I think I'm declining those. Right. Today we will be discussing the H1 financial results for the period ended 30 June 2026. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone to keep their microphones muted throughout the presentation. We will open the floor for questions during the Q&A session. It is now my pleasure to introduce our esteemed management. We have Mr. Abdullah Al Hinai, our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Giridhar Varadachari, our Chief Financial Officer, along with members from the finance team. Mr. Abdullah, the floor is yours.

Speaker #1: Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone to keep their microphones muted throughout the presentation. We will open the floor for questions during the Q&A session.

Speaker #1: It is now my pleasure to introduce our esteemed management. We have Mr. Abdullah Al Henai, our Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Garidar Peretejari, our Chief Financial Officer.

Speaker #1: Along with members from the Finance team. Mr. Abdullah, the floor is yours.

Speaker #2: Thank you very much. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. My name is Abdullah Al-Henai, and I'm the Chief Executive Officer of National Bank of Oman. Thank you very much for taking the time and meeting us virtually.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Thank you very much. Salam Alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. My name is Abdullah Al Hinai. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of National Bank of Oman. Thank you very much for taking time and meeting us virtually. We're going to present mainly our financial performance for the H1 2026. I'll start with some basic slides that we always present in such forums, and then we'll be happy to take any of your questions, be it in English or in Arabic. Slide four. A lot of the attendees who have met us or saw us would have seen this slide, but I'll not dwell on every aspect. I'll select key elements of this slide. National Bank of Oman is the first locally incorporated bank, set up in 1973. After a successful 5-year strategy that started in January 2021, we've concluded that 5-year strategy in December 2025.

Abdullah Hinai: Thank you very much. Salam Alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. My name is Abdullah Al Hinai. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of National Bank of Oman. Thank you very much for taking time and meeting us virtually. We're going to present mainly our financial performance for the H1 2026. I'll start with some basic slides that we always present in such forums, and then we'll be happy to take any of your questions, be it in English or in Arabic. Slide four. A lot of the attendees who have met us or saw us would have seen this slide, but I'll not dwell on every aspect. I'll select key elements of this slide. National Bank of Oman is the first locally incorporated bank, set up in 1973. After a successful 5-year strategy that started in January 2021, we've concluded that 5-year strategy in December 2025.

Speaker #2: We're going to present mainly our financial performance for the first half of 2026. I'll start with some basic slides that we always present in such forums.

Speaker #2: And then we'd be happy to take any of your questions, be it in English or in Arabic. Slide 4. A lot of the attendees who have met us or seen us would have seen this slide, but I'll not dwell on every aspect. I'll select key elements of this slide.

Speaker #2: National Bank of Oman is the first locally incorporated bank, set up in 1973. After a successful five-year strategy that started in January 2021, we've concluded the five-year strategy in December 2025.

Speaker #2: This is the first half of the first year performance of our new three-year strategy. Our three-year strategy, which I have a separate slide on, is basically to leverage and build upon the success of our five-year strategy.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: This is the H1 of the first year performance of our new 3-year strategy. Our 3-year strategy, which I have a separate slide on, is basically to leverage and build up on the success of our 5-year strategy. The performance of the H1 clearly indicates that we are on the right trajectory, Inshallah. Another key aspect of Oman is the strong shareholder base. We continue to have similar as in the past. Commercial Bank of Qatar continues to own approximately 5%. The late Sheikh Suhail bin Hasan owns around the 15%, and then the rest are distributed amongst different shareholders. Over the past many years, we've been focusing on technology and being efficient through digital offering. This continues. Thank you. We've been investing in technology, and we continue to do so. We believe that our offering through the technology space is market leading.

Abdullah Hinai: This is the H1 of the first year performance of our new 3-year strategy. Our 3-year strategy, which I have a separate slide on, is basically to leverage and build up on the success of our 5-year strategy. The performance of the H1 clearly indicates that we are on the right trajectory, Inshallah. Another key aspect of Oman is the strong shareholder base. We continue to have similar as in the past. Commercial Bank of Qatar continues to own approximately 5%. The late Sheikh Suhail bin Hasan owns around the 15%, and then the rest are distributed amongst different shareholders. Over the past many years, we've been focusing on technology and being efficient through digital offering. This continues. Thank you. We've been investing in technology, and we continue to do so. We believe that our offering through the technology space is market leading.

Speaker #2: The performance of the first half clearly indicates that we are on the right trajectory, inshallah. Another key aspect is the strong shareholder base. We continue to have a similar base as in the past.

Speaker #2: Commercial Bank of Qatar continues to own approximately 5%. The lead, Sheikh Suhail Mahwan, owns around 15%, and then the rest are distributed amongst different shareholders.

Speaker #2: Over the past many years, we've been focusing on technology and being efficient through digital offerings. With this, we request Misha. Misha, can you—thank you.

Speaker #2: We've been investing in technology, and we continue to do so. We believe that our offering in the technology space is market-leading. Strong financial metrics, and we're going to talk about that in more detail in the next few slides.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Strong financial metrics, and we're going to talk about that in more details in the next few slides. Slide six and seven. Again, I'll not take you through each and every aspect of this, but I think most people would be interested in terms of how did the overall economy fared under the regional situation. Alhamdulillah, Oman has been blessed with both the political and physical policies that it has adopted over decades and decades to help navigate the current situation. We strongly believe that Oman is well-positioned to weather the storm and rather leverage and build on the opportunities that might arise. Overall, the market has been very positive. The liquidity situation continues to be ample and strong.

Abdullah Hinai: Strong financial metrics, and we're going to talk about that in more details in the next few slides. Slide six and seven. Again, I'll not take you through each and every aspect of this, but I think most people would be interested in terms of how did the overall economy fared under the regional situation. Alhamdulillah, Oman has been blessed with both the political and physical policies that it has adopted over decades and decades to help navigate the current situation. We strongly believe that Oman is well-positioned to weather the storm and rather leverage and build on the opportunities that might arise. Overall, the market has been very positive. The liquidity situation continues to be ample and strong.

Speaker #2: Slides 6 and 7. Again, I won't take you through each and every aspect of this, but I think most people would be interested in terms of how the overall economy fared under the regional situation.

Speaker #2: Alhamdulillah, Oman has been blessed with both the political and physical policies that it has adopted over decades and decades to help navigate the current situation.

Speaker #2: We strongly believe that Oman is well positioned to weather the storm and, rather, leverage and build on the opportunities that might arise. Overall, the market has been very positive.

Speaker #2: The liquidity situation continues to be ample and strong. Opportunities continue to build, and we are actually seeing greater visibility in terms of new opportunities that have been emerging for local banks to participate in and build a business case.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: The opportunities continues to be building while we actually see visibility and stronger visibility in terms of new opportunities that have been emerging for local banks to participate and build a business case. From a banking sector perspective, that's slide seven. Again, a very strong growth. Unfortunately, we did not have the full information for Q2, so a lot of this information is regarding Q1 for the banking sector. I have some key details of Q2 as well, or H1. The banking sector grew by about 13.8% in terms of loans and advances and saw a very similar growth in customer deposits. By 13.6%. This clearly indicates that there is a balanced growth between loans and the liabilities, so the asset side and the liability side. The loans are funded predominantly through customer deposits.

Abdullah Hinai: The opportunities continues to be building while we actually see visibility and stronger visibility in terms of new opportunities that have been emerging for local banks to participate and build a business case. From a banking sector perspective, that's slide seven. Again, a very strong growth. Unfortunately, we did not have the full information for Q2, so a lot of this information is regarding Q1 for the banking sector. I have some key details of Q2 as well, or H1. The banking sector grew by about 13.8% in terms of loans and advances and saw a very similar growth in customer deposits. By 13.6%. This clearly indicates that there is a balanced growth between loans and the liabilities, so the asset side and the liability side. The loans are funded predominantly through customer deposits.

Speaker #2: From a banking sector perspective, that's slide number 7. Again, very strong growth. Unfortunately, we did not have the full information for the second quarter, so a lot of this information is regarding the first quarter for the banking sector, but I have some key details of Q2 as well, or H1.

Speaker #2: The banking sector grew by about 13.8% in terms of loans and advances, and saw very similar growth in customer deposits—by 13.6%. This clearly indicates that there's a balanced growth between loans and liabilities, the asset side and the liability side.

Speaker #2: And the loans are funded predominantly through customer deposits. Most of the banks—and all the banks—have posted very strong performance in the mid-teens levels.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: All of the banks have posted very strong performance in the mid-teens levels. Again, demonstrating a very strong and robust performance by the banking sector. Definitely, like I mentioned about the macroeconomic picture, the banking sector is well managed through a robust and supportive regulatory environment, which has been set up by the Central Bank of Oman, and we continue to benefit from those positive regulatory environments. The sustainability piece continues to be also a focus area for the country and for the banking sector. The government had announced a commitment of net zero by 2050. There are a number of initiatives that the government has announced and continues to announce to lead the country towards a net zero emission by 2050. It's also part of Oman Vision 2040, where multiple pillars of that vision directly links with the overall sustainability and development aspect.

Abdullah Hinai: All of the banks have posted very strong performance in the mid-teens levels. Again, demonstrating a very strong and robust performance by the banking sector. Definitely, like I mentioned about the macroeconomic picture, the banking sector is well managed through a robust and supportive regulatory environment, which has been set up by the Central Bank of Oman, and we continue to benefit from those positive regulatory environments. The sustainability piece continues to be also a focus area for the country and for the banking sector. The government had announced a commitment of net zero by 2050. There are a number of initiatives that the government has announced and continues to announce to lead the country towards a net zero emission by 2050. It's also part of Oman Vision 2040, where multiple pillars of that vision directly links with the overall sustainability and development aspect.

Speaker #2: Again, demonstrating a very strong and robust performance by the banking sector. Definitely, like I mentioned about the macroeconomic picture, the banking sector is well managed through a robust and supportive regulatory environment, which has been set up by the Central Bank of Oman.

Speaker #2: And we continue to benefit from those positive regulatory environments. The sustainability piece also continues to be a focus area for the country and for the banking sector.

Speaker #2: The government had announced a commitment to net zero by 2050. There are a number of initiatives that the government has announced and continues to announce to lead the country towards net zero emissions by 2050.

Speaker #2: It's also part of Oman's Vision 2040, where multiple pillars of that vision directly link with the overall sustainability and development aspect. The Ministry of Finance also continues to support such initiatives, and the Central Bank has issued a number of circulars since 2024 to promote sustainable and green financial practices, in addition to other aspects such as financial inclusion, etc.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Ministry of Finance continues also to support such initiatives, and the Central Bank had come up with a number of circulars since 2024 to promote sustainable and green financial practices, in addition to other aspects such as financial inclusions, et cetera. Slide nine. This is in particular the slide about our new three-year strategy that started in January of 2026. We call it PRIME for short. P is for profitable and sustainable growth. This is a very important aspect for us. People who have witnessed our performance since January of 2021 would have seen that we are clearly focused on profitable growth, a very disciplined approach in terms of that, and ensuring that any steps that we take forward has to be a sustainable step. We continue to do that, and it's well emphasized in our three-year strategy. How do we achieve this? Through strengthening our customer relationship.

Abdullah Hinai: Ministry of Finance continues also to support such initiatives, and the Central Bank had come up with a number of circulars since 2024 to promote sustainable and green financial practices, in addition to other aspects such as financial inclusions, et cetera. Slide nine. This is in particular the slide about our new three-year strategy that started in January of 2026. We call it PRIME for short. P is for profitable and sustainable growth. This is a very important aspect for us. People who have witnessed our performance since January of 2021 would have seen that we are clearly focused on profitable growth, a very disciplined approach in terms of that, and ensuring that any steps that we take forward has to be a sustainable step. We continue to do that, and it's well emphasized in our three-year strategy. How do we achieve this? Through strengthening our customer relationship.

Speaker #2: Slide 9. This is, in particular, the slide about our new three-year strategy that started in January of 2026. We call it Prime, for short.

Speaker #2: P is for Profitable and Sustainable Growth. This is a very important aspect. For us, people who have witnessed our performance since January of 2021 would have seen that we are clearly focused on profitable growth, a very disciplined approach in terms of that, and ensuring that any steps that we take forward has to be a sustainable step.

Speaker #2: We continue to do that, and it's well emphasized in our three-year strategy. How do we achieve this? Through strengthening our customer relationship. Being the oldest locally incorporated bank, we do carry a long history of relationship with different segments of the market—be it government, corporate, or individual.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Being the oldest locally incorporated bank, we do carry a long history of relationship with different segments of the market, be it government, be it the corporate and individual. We continue to build on those and build and strengthen, deepen relationship with our customer base. Innovation and technology are key aspects, which covers the I and E of PRIME. We are accelerating our digital transformation. We are shifting and diverting a lot of our businesses away from the traditional distribution channels to more digital and technology-based channels. This is a key focus for management in the next three years. The requirements of the market that we operate in, and specifically our customer base, has been changing and emerging. The technologies that we operate with has also been changing and becoming more complex.

Abdullah Hinai: Being the oldest locally incorporated bank, we do carry a long history of relationship with different segments of the market, be it government, be it the corporate and individual. We continue to build on those and build and strengthen, deepen relationship with our customer base. Innovation and technology are key aspects, which covers the I and E of PRIME. We are accelerating our digital transformation. We are shifting and diverting a lot of our businesses away from the traditional distribution channels to more digital and technology-based channels. This is a key focus for management in the next three years. The requirements of the market that we operate in, and specifically our customer base, has been changing and emerging. The technologies that we operate with has also been changing and becoming more complex.

Speaker #2: We continue to build on those and strengthen and deepen our relationship with our customer base. Innovation and technology are key aspects, which cover the I and E of Prime.

Speaker #2: We are accelerating our digital transformation. We are shifting and diverting a lot of our business away from the traditional distribution channels to more digital and technology-based channels.

Speaker #2: And this is a key focus for management in the next three years. The requirements of the market that we operate in, and specifically our customer base, have been changing and emerging.

Speaker #2: The technologies that we operate with have also been changing and becoming more complex. Thus, ensuring that the organization does have a future-ready workforce is very key.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Thus, ensuring that the organization does have a future-ready workforce is very key. We continuously looking at upskilling our talent, bringing in the right skill sets that are required for today's and tomorrow's requirements and demands. I've talked also about the technology piece. We don't shy away from partnering. We are happy to partner. We've created a number of different ecosystems that has been well accepted by the market. We are the first bank to actually create an open API environment through the Central Bank of Oman's Regulatory Sandbox. We've also launched a number of initiatives and collaborative services. On National Bank of Oman, in particular, I've repeated this, that we are the first Omani commercial bank.

Abdullah Hinai: Thus, ensuring that the organization does have a future-ready workforce is very key. We continuously looking at upskilling our talent, bringing in the right skill sets that are required for today's and tomorrow's requirements and demands. I've talked also about the technology piece. We don't shy away from partnering. We are happy to partner. We've created a number of different ecosystems that has been well accepted by the market. We are the first bank to actually create an open API environment through the Central Bank of Oman's Regulatory Sandbox. We've also launched a number of initiatives and collaborative services. On National Bank of Oman, in particular, I've repeated this, that we are the first Omani commercial bank.

Speaker #2: And we are continuously looking at upskilling our talent, bringing in the right skill sets that are required for today's and tomorrow's requirements and demands. I've also talked about the technology piece, and we don't shy away from partnering.

Speaker #2: We are happy to partner. We've created a number of different ecosystems that have been well accepted by the market. We are the first bank to actually create an open API environment through the Central Bank of Oman's regulatory framework of—sorry, framework of sandbox.

Speaker #2: We've also launched a number of initiatives and collaborative services. On Commercial Bank of Oman in particular, I've repeated this, that we are the first Omani commercial bank, so we carry quite a bit of important history and legacy, and we continue to make sure that every step that we take is actually one leveraging on that history, but ensuring that it is continuously defended and we build on it.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: We carry quite a bit of important history and legacy. We continue to make sure that every step that we take is actually one leveraging on that history, ensuring that it is continuously defended and we build on it. Today, National Bank of Oman has presence predominantly in Oman, but we do have a small operation in UAE, in particular Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Egyptian operation has completely ceased. We're in the final stages of exit formalities with the authorities in Egypt. Slide 13. This is my last slide, and then I would request Giri to take us through the financial. Just key aspect of our performance in H1 2026. Net profit grew by close to 15% to around OMR 39 million compared to H1 2025.

Abdullah Hinai: We carry quite a bit of important history and legacy. We continue to make sure that every step that we take is actually one leveraging on that history, ensuring that it is continuously defended and we build on it. Today, National Bank of Oman has presence predominantly in Oman, but we do have a small operation in UAE, in particular Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Egyptian operation has completely ceased. We're in the final stages of exit formalities with the authorities in Egypt. Slide 13. This is my last slide, and then I would request Giri to take us through the financial. Just key aspect of our performance in H1 2026. Net profit grew by close to 15% to around OMR 39 million compared to H1 2025.

Speaker #2: Today, National Bank of Oman has presence predominantly in Oman, but we do have a small operation in the UAE, in particular Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Speaker #2: The Egyptian operation has completely ceased. We are in the final stages of exit formalities with the authorities in Egypt. Slide 13. This is my last slide, and then I will request Giri to take us through the financials.

Speaker #2: Just a key aspect of our performance in the first half of 2026: net profit grew by close to 15%, to around 39 million Omani Riyal, compared to the first half of 2025.

Speaker #2: Both our loan book as well as our deposit book have grown in very similar fashion, about 9%. So again, this clearly demonstrates ample liquidity in the market and our keenness to ensure that our funding is customer-based, or driven by customer funding sources.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Both our loan book as well as our deposit book has grown in a very similar fashion, about 9%. Again, clearly demonstrating ample liquidity in the market and our keenness to ensure that our funding is customer-based or customer-driven funding sources. One of the things that we are very proud about is, on the net interest income side, we've been able to improve that matrix by about 12%, growing to close to OMR 60 million in H1. Our capital adequacy continues to be quite robust. A lot of people who have been tracking us are aware that we've successfully concluded a transaction in Q4 2025. We carried two of these capital instruments for a while, and we repaid the maturing or at the first call for one of the AT1s in the early part of Q2 2026.

Abdullah Hinai: Both our loan book as well as our deposit book has grown in a very similar fashion, about 9%. Again, clearly demonstrating ample liquidity in the market and our keenness to ensure that our funding is customer-based or customer-driven funding sources. One of the things that we are very proud about is, on the net interest income side, we've been able to improve that matrix by about 12%, growing to close to OMR 60 million in H1. Our capital adequacy continues to be quite robust. A lot of people who have been tracking us are aware that we've successfully concluded a transaction in Q4 2025. We carried two of these capital instruments for a while, and we repaid the maturing or at the first call for one of the AT1s in the early part of Q2 2026.

Speaker #2: One of the things that we are very proud about is, on the net interest income side, we've been able to improve that metric by about 12%, growing to close to 60 million Omani Riyal in the first half.

Speaker #2: Our capital adequacy continues to be quite robust. A lot of people who have been tracking us are aware that we've successfully concluded a transaction in Q4 of 2025.

Speaker #2: We carried two of these capital instruments for a while, and we repaid the maturing, or at the first call, for one of the AT1s in the early part of Q2 of 2026.

Speaker #2: Our capital impairments, although they have increased, show an increase of 38%. But again, it's just our prudency—we continue to carry slightly additional provisions from Q1.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Impairments, although it looks like an increase of 38%, again, it's just our prudency. We continue to carry slightly additional provisions from Q1. We continuously assess the situation on a continuous basis. We take the right steps whenever it is required. Alhamdulillah, in the last five years, there were no new names that were added to our stressed accounts. Everything continues to be moving in the right direction. We continuously building up ECL to ensure that we have enough margin and cushion there. With that, I will end my slide and request Giri to take us through the detailed financials.

Abdullah Hinai: Impairments, although it looks like an increase of 38%, again, it's just our prudency. We continue to carry slightly additional provisions from Q1. We continuously assess the situation on a continuous basis. We take the right steps whenever it is required. Alhamdulillah, in the last five years, there were no new names that were added to our stressed accounts. Everything continues to be moving in the right direction. We continuously building up ECL to ensure that we have enough margin and cushion there. With that, I will end my slide and request Giri to take us through the detailed financials.

Speaker #2: We continuously assess this situation on a regular basis, and we take the right steps whenever they are required. Alhamdulillah, in the last five years, there were no new names added to our stressed accounts.

Speaker #2: Everything continues to be moving in the right direction, and we are continuously building up ECL to ensure that we have enough margin and cushion there.

Speaker #2: With that, I will end my slide and request Giri to take us through the detailed financials. Thank you, Abu Hisham. Assalamualaikum, and good afternoon to all of you.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Thank you, Abu Hishem. Salam alaikum, and good afternoon to all of you. Good to see a number of familiar faces and names on the call. Before I jump into slide number 14, I will reiterate the message that we have been giving the investor community for the last 5 years. We have a clearly defined strategy. We execute on the strategy, aim to have no surprises. We aim to have a well-capitalized and liquid bank, meaning balance sheet being very strong, and that enables us to choose what credits we want to participate in and drive the business in a profitable manner. This slide 14 talks about some of the matrices that the CEO talked about just now, which included the net interest income growing year-on-year. Clearly, in the market, cost of funds have been an issue.

Giridhar Varadachari: Thank you, Abu Hishem. Salam alaikum, and good afternoon to all of you. Good to see a number of familiar faces and names on the call. Before I jump into slide number 14, I will reiterate the message that we have been giving the investor community for the last 5 years. We have a clearly defined strategy. We execute on the strategy, aim to have no surprises. We aim to have a well-capitalized and liquid bank, meaning balance sheet being very strong, and that enables us to choose what credits we want to participate in and drive the business in a profitable manner. This slide 14 talks about some of the matrices that the CEO talked about just now, which included the net interest income growing year-on-year. Clearly, in the market, cost of funds have been an issue.

Speaker #2: It's good to see a number of familiar faces and names on the call. Before I jump into slide number 14, I will reiterate the message that we have been giving the investor community for the last five years.

Speaker #2: We have a clearly defined strategy. We execute on the strategy and aim to have no surprises. We also aim to have a well-capitalized and liquid bank, meaning the balance sheet is very strong.

Speaker #2: And that enables us to choose what we want to participate in, what credits we want to participate in, and drive the business in a profitable manner.

Speaker #2: So, this slide 14 talks about some of the metrics that the CEO mentioned just now, which included the net interest income growing year-on-year.

Speaker #2: Clearly, in the market, cost of funds has been an issue. We are very disciplined in terms of what we pay for deposits. We have set out in the past how we manage liquidity in the bank through meeting with the businesses and the funding sources more than once a week.

Giridhar S Varadachari: We are very disciplined in terms of what we pay for deposits. We have set out in the past how we manage liquidity in the bank through meeting with the businesses and the funding sources more than once a week. That's number 1. The second thing I would talk about here in this slide, on the left side, is the cost income ratio. We do invest in three areas, which are people, technology, and the brand. We continue to do that on a regular basis. Bijoy, I see a question. Allow me to complete these few slides, and we will take your question for sure. You see that the cost income ratio has been steadily improving. We see for the H1 of this year, ending the year at a cost income ratio of just around 39%.

Giridhar Varadachari: We are very disciplined in terms of what we pay for deposits. We have set out in the past how we manage liquidity in the bank through meeting with the businesses and the funding sources more than once a week. That's number 1. The second thing I would talk about here in this slide, on the left side, is the cost income ratio. We do invest in three areas, which are people, technology, and the brand. We continue to do that on a regular basis. Bijoy, I see a question. Allow me to complete these few slides, and we will take your question for sure. You see that the cost income ratio has been steadily improving. We see for the H1 of this year, ending the year at a cost income ratio of just around 39%.

Speaker #2: That's number one. The second thing I would talk about here, on this slide on the left side, is the cost-income ratio. We do invest in three areas, which are people, technology, and the brand.

Speaker #2: We continue to do that on a regular basis. BJOY, I see your question. Allow me to complete these few slides, and we will take your question for sure.

Speaker #2: So you see that the cost-income ratio has been steadily improving. We see for the first half of this year, ending the year at a cost-income ratio of just around 39%.

Speaker #2: We have mentioned that we don't see this number going down much further because of the need to continuously invest not only in people and technology, but also due to the regulatory changes happening around us.

Giridhar S Varadachari: We have mentioned that we don't see this number going down further too much because of the need to continuously invest, not only in our people and technology but also regulatory changes which are happening around us. On the return matrices, really, ROA, up 7 basis points. ROE, slightly down that because of what the CEO just talked about in terms of carrying 2 AT1s. There was overlap between the period of raising the AT1 in November and repaying it on the first call date of 1 April 2026. You see the net impairment ratio. Again, we told you that we will manage the bank to the approved strategy and execute on the approved strategy and taking the prudent level of provisioning that is required. That broadly sums up the operating performance.

Giridhar Varadachari: We have mentioned that we don't see this number going down further too much because of the need to continuously invest, not only in our people and technology but also regulatory changes which are happening around us. On the return matrices, really, ROA, up 7 basis points. ROE, slightly down that because of what the CEO just talked about in terms of carrying 2 AT1s. There was overlap between the period of raising the AT1 in November and repaying it on the first call date of 1 April 2026. You see the net impairment ratio. Again, we told you that we will manage the bank to the approved strategy and execute on the approved strategy and taking the prudent level of provisioning that is required. That broadly sums up the operating performance.

Speaker #2: Then, on the return matrices, really, ROA is up seven basis points. ROE is slightly down; that is because of what the CEO just talked about in terms of carrying two AT1s, as there was an overlap between the period of raising the AT1 in November and repaying it on the first call date of 1st April 2020.

Speaker #2: Then you see the net impairment ratio again. We told you that we will manage the bank to the approved strategy and execute on the approved strategy, taking the prudent level of provisioning that is required.

Speaker #2: That broadly sums up the operating performance. A couple more slides, and then I'll pause. Maybe four slides, then three slides, and then I'll pause.

Giridhar S Varadachari: A couple of more slides and then I'll pause, maybe four slides and three slides, and then I'll pause. Asset quality, again, some of the aspects that I touched about earlier. We are very conservative in terms of how we approach lending. The CEO mentioned that there were no new credit defaults or NPAs, actually, is the right word, during the last 5 years. That continues. Predominantly, we said we were growing in the GRE segment, that comes up with the challenge of the pricing. We managed that well. Our loan book grew 7.1% this year and year-on-year basis, 9.3%. We have a very diversified portfolio. Clearly, we are building the provisions. The total provision as a percentage of loans is 4.2%. NPL ratio 4.4%. We've said, if you remember us in the past, just hovering around the 5% mark.

Giridhar Varadachari: A couple of more slides and then I'll pause, maybe four slides and three slides, and then I'll pause. Asset quality, again, some of the aspects that I touched about earlier. We are very conservative in terms of how we approach lending. The CEO mentioned that there were no new credit defaults or NPAs, actually, is the right word, during the last 5 years. That continues. Predominantly, we said we were growing in the GRE segment, that comes up with the challenge of the pricing. We managed that well. Our loan book grew 7.1% this year and year-on-year basis, 9.3%. We have a very diversified portfolio. Clearly, we are building the provisions. The total provision as a percentage of loans is 4.2%. NPL ratio 4.4%. We've said, if you remember us in the past, just hovering around the 5% mark.

Speaker #2: Asset quality, again, some of the aspects that I touched on earlier. We are very conservative in terms of how we approach lending. The CEO mentioned that there were no new credit defaults—or NPAs, actually is the right word—during the last five years.

Speaker #2: That continues. Predominantly, we said we were growing in the GRE segment, but then that comes up with the challenge of pricing, right? But we managed that well.

Speaker #2: Loan growth: book grew 7.1% this year, and on a year-on-year basis, 9.3%. We have a very diversified portfolio. Clearly, we are building the provisions—the total provision as a percentage of loans is 4.2%.

Speaker #2: NPL ratio is 4.4%. We've said, if you remember us in the past, just hovering around the 5% mark. And then the stage two loans, as well, in terms of numbers, are coming down; nothing major to flag out.

Giridhar S Varadachari: The stage 2 loans as well, in terms of number coming down, nothing major to flag out. New loans, growth of loans causes that. You can see in the tables below in terms of the coverage ratio, moving up from 91.7% in June 2025 to 97.1% in H1 of this year. Overall, good performance here in terms of the provisions and the growth of the loans as well. We go on to the standard slide around, if Meg move to the next one, please. The liquidity and capital slides where we talk about how we fund the book. Our cost. We talked about growing low-cost liabilities, which is primarily what we define as CASA. The CASAs account for 54% of overall deposits, while term deposits account for 45%. The stable funding, we aim to have a customer deposit-led funding approach.

Giridhar Varadachari: The stage 2 loans as well, in terms of number coming down, nothing major to flag out. New loans, growth of loans causes that. You can see in the tables below in terms of the coverage ratio, moving up from 91.7% in June 2025 to 97.1% in H1 of this year. Overall, good performance here in terms of the provisions and the growth of the loans as well. We go on to the standard slide around, if Meg move to the next one, please. The liquidity and capital slides where we talk about how we fund the book. Our cost. We talked about growing low-cost liabilities, which is primarily what we define as CASA. The CASAs account for 54% of overall deposits, while term deposits account for 45%. The stable funding, we aim to have a customer deposit-led funding approach.

Speaker #2: New loans growth of loans causes that. You can see in the tables below, in terms of the coverage ratio, moving up from 91.7% in June 2025 to 97.1% in the first half of this year.

Speaker #2: Overall, good performance here in terms of the provisions and the growth of the loans as well. Then we go on to the standard slide. All right, move on to the next one, please.

Speaker #2: The liquidity and capital slides, where we talk about how we fund the book, our cost—we talked about growing low-cost liabilities, which is primarily what we define as CASA.

Speaker #2: The CASA accounts for 54% of overall deposits, while term deposits account for 45%. For stable funding, we aim to have a customer deposit-led funding approach, right?

Speaker #2: Our reliance on wholesale funding remains limited. We have a very good CASA ratio of 54%, and other time deposits of 45%. That ratio continues to improve. This stands us in good stead in terms of managing the cost of funds.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Our reliance on wholesale funding remains limited. We have very good CASA ratio of 54%, others, time deposit of 45%, and that ratio continues to improve. This stands us well in a good stead in terms of managing the cost of funds. That's the key call-out there really in terms of how we fund the book. In terms of liquid assets, we clearly set out here how the liquid asset ratio as well as the other metrics is compared from a liquidity perspective. Last but not least, and the most important in terms of capitalization, we have set out that we aim to be well capitalized and liquid. As you can see, in June we were at 16.6% total CAR. We finished H1 at 17.5%.

Giridhar Varadachari: Our reliance on wholesale funding remains limited. We have very good CASA ratio of 54%, others, time deposit of 45%, and that ratio continues to improve. This stands us well in a good stead in terms of managing the cost of funds. That's the key call-out there really in terms of how we fund the book. In terms of liquid assets, we clearly set out here how the liquid asset ratio as well as the other metrics is compared from a liquidity perspective. Last but not least, and the most important in terms of capitalization, we have set out that we aim to be well capitalized and liquid. As you can see, in June we were at 16.6% total CAR. We finished H1 at 17.5%.

Speaker #2: So that's the key callout there, really, in terms of how we fund the book. In terms of liquid assets, we've clearly set out here how the liquid asset ratio, as well as the other metrics, compare from a liquidity perspective.

Speaker #2: Last but not least, and most important in terms of capitalization, we have set out that we aim to be well capitalized and liquid.

Speaker #2: As you can see, in June, we were at 16.6% total CAR. We finished H1 at 17.5%. In between the two first halves, we raised OMR 300 million of AT1, primarily to repay the existing, or the previous, AT1 which was issued in 2021 during the pandemic.

Giridhar S Varadachari: In between the two H1s, we raised OMR 300 million of AT1, primarily to repay the existing or the previous AT1 which was issued in 2021, during the pandemic. This was issued at 8%, at that level, a very competitive rate. The new one was issued at 6.625%, issued in November, the third week of November, used to repay the call on the first call date of 1 April. That's why the moment you see, and of course, the profit retention and dividend payment. To sum up, we have a clearly defined strategy as we set out in the slide. The new three-year program we are PRIME, which we call the Strategy S, is clearly defined. We are executing in the first 6 months. We are pleased with the pace of execution.

Giridhar Varadachari: In between the two H1s, we raised OMR 300 million of AT1, primarily to repay the existing or the previous AT1 which was issued in 2021, during the pandemic. This was issued at 8%, at that level, a very competitive rate. The new one was issued at 6.625%, issued in November, the third week of November, used to repay the call on the first call date of 1 April. That's why the moment you see, and of course, the profit retention and dividend payment. To sum up, we have a clearly defined strategy as we set out in the slide. The new three-year program we are PRIME, which we call the Strategy S, is clearly defined. We are executing in the first 6 months. We are pleased with the pace of execution.

Speaker #2: This was issued at 8%, which was a very competitive rate. The new one was issued at 6.625% in November, during the third week of November.

Speaker #2: Used to repay the call on the first call date of April 1st. That's why you see the movement, and of course, the profit retention and dividend payment.

Speaker #2: So, to sum up, we have a clearly defined strategy as we set out in the slide. The new three-year program—we are a prime, which we call the strategy—is clearly defined.

Speaker #2: We are executing well in the first six months. We are pleased with the pace of execution. We are satisfied with our performance in terms of improvements in profitability year on year and in terms of our liquidity, capital, and provision coverage, et cetera.

Giridhar S Varadachari: We are good with our performance in terms of the improvements in profitability year-on-year and in terms of our liquidity, capital, and provision coverage, et cetera. That's really my summary. A clearly defined strategy, executing well, good set of numbers for H1. We'll now open for comments and questions, please.

Giridhar Varadachari: We are good with our performance in terms of the improvements in profitability year-on-year and in terms of our liquidity, capital, and provision coverage, et cetera. That's really my summary. A clearly defined strategy, executing well, good set of numbers for H1. We'll now open for comments and questions, please.

Speaker #2: So that's really my summary. Clearly defined strategy, executing well, and a good set of numbers for the first half. We'll now open for comments and questions, please.

Speaker #1: Is the guide.

[Company Representative] (National Bank of Oman): Is the guy.

Abdullah Hinai: Is the guy.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Bijoy had a comment first. Bijoy. Can we go to Bijoy? Hi, Bijoy. Hope you're well. Please go ahead.

Giridhar Varadachari: Bijoy had a comment first. Bijoy. Can we go to Bijoy? Hi, Bijoy. Hope you're well. Please go ahead.

Speaker #2: Binai had a comment first. BJOY, can we go to BJOY? Hi, BJOY. Hope you're well. Please go ahead.

Speaker #3: Hi. Thank you, gentlemen, for the call. My question is specifically on your cost and ROE. Given ROE of around 8.5% to 8.7%, it's well below the cost of capital.

[Analyst] (QIC Asset Management): Hi. Thank you, gentlemen, for the call. My question is specifically on your cost and ROE. Given ROE of around 8.5% to 8.7%, it's well below the cost of capital. Cost of equity, to be precise. What are the initiatives taken by the management in order to bridge that gap? How soon we can bridge that gap? That's my first question.

Bijoy Joy: Hi. Thank you, gentlemen, for the call. My question is specifically on your cost and ROE. Given ROE of around 8.5% to 8.7%, it's well below the cost of capital. Cost of equity, to be precise. What are the initiatives taken by the management in order to bridge that gap? How soon we can bridge that gap? That's my first question.

Speaker #3: Cost of equity, to be precise. So what are the initiatives taken by the management in order to bridge that gap? And how soon can we bridge that gap?

Speaker #3: That's my first question.

Speaker #2: Yeah, BJOY, where are you from? Sorry, if you could just—maybe everyone can.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Yeah. Bijoy, where are you from?

Giridhar Varadachari: Yeah. Bijoy, where are you from?

Speaker #3: Yeah, this is BJOY here. I am from QIC Asset Management.

[Analyst] (QIC Asset Management): This is Bijoy here. I am from QIC Asset Management.

Bijoy Joy: This is Bijoy here. I am from QIC Asset Management.

Speaker #2: Yeah, I'll go. So yeah, good question. Yes, return on equity is below cost of capital. That is true for most banks operating here. You see, if you followed our trajectory, then the CEO and I started, we had a return on 2021, we are return on equity was close to 5%.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Good question. Yes, return on equity is below cost of capital. That is true for most banks operating here. You see, if you followed our trajectory then, when the CEO and I started, we had. 2021, our return on equity was close to 5%. Steadily, that's improved closer to the 8.9, 8.7. You'd see some more improvements. Over the medium term, we. We don't issue forward-looking guidance and follow the local stock exchange requirements. Over the medium term, we see our return on equity improving to double digits. As the sort of in a situation in terms of fiscal prudence, et cetera, of the macroeconomic indicators improve, then we expect the cost of credit, I mean, cost of equity also to hover around that 11% mark. You should see some improvement in this space over the medium term.

Giridhar Varadachari: Good question. Yes, return on equity is below cost of capital. That is true for most banks operating here. You see, if you followed our trajectory then, when the CEO and I started, we had. 2021, our return on equity was close to 5%. Steadily, that's improved closer to the 8.9, 8.7. You'd see some more improvements. Over the medium term, we. We don't issue forward-looking guidance and follow the local stock exchange requirements. Over the medium term, we see our return on equity improving to double digits. As the sort of in a situation in terms of fiscal prudence, et cetera, of the macroeconomic indicators improve, then we expect the cost of credit, I mean, cost of equity also to hover around that 11% mark. You should see some improvement in this space over the medium term.

Speaker #2: Steadily, that's improved, closer to 8.9, 8.7. You should see some more improvements. Over the medium term, we expect—well, we don't issue forward-looking guidance and follow the local stock exchange requirements.

Speaker #2: Over the median term, we see our return on equity improving to double digits. And as the sort of in a situation in terms of fiscal prudence, et cetera, of the macroeconomic indicators improve, then we expect the cost of credit I mean, cost of equity also to hover around the 11% mark.

Speaker #2: So, you should see some improvement in this space over the medium term. The cost-income ratio has come down, BJOY, from 55%—which is what we started with—to about 39.1%.

Giridhar S Varadachari: The cost-income ratio has come down, Bijoy, from 55%, which is what we started, to about 39.1%. We are second best in the industry. We clearly need to manage this prudently because we have a branch network here. Oman is a geographically bigger country, relatively. Therefore, we don't expect the cost-income ratio in terms of to drop to mid or low 30s, et cetera. We are improving our income. We aim to grow. We have delivered over the last 22 quarters, delivered positive Jaws, i.e. income growth surpassing expense growth. Strive towards that in the medium term, probably reach double digits. That's my answer to your question, please.

Giridhar Varadachari: The cost-income ratio has come down, Bijoy, from 55%, which is what we started, to about 39.1%. We are second best in the industry. We clearly need to manage this prudently because we have a branch network here. Oman is a geographically bigger country, relatively. Therefore, we don't expect the cost-income ratio in terms of to drop to mid or low 30s, et cetera. We are improving our income. We aim to grow. We have delivered over the last 22 quarters, delivered positive Jaws, i.e. income growth surpassing expense growth. Strive towards that in the medium term, probably reach double digits. That's my answer to your question, please.

Speaker #2: We are second best in the industry. We clearly need to manage this prudently because we have a branch network here. Oman is a geographically bigger country, relatively.

Speaker #2: And therefore, we don't expect the cost-income ratio to drop to the mid- or low-30s, et cetera. That's not prudent. So we are improving our income.

Speaker #2: We aim to grow. We have delivered, over the last 22 quarters, positive JOS—that is, income growth surpassing expense growth. We will strive towards that.

Speaker #2: In the medium term, probably reach double digits. That's my answer to your question, please.

Speaker #1: I'll attempt also at a macro level, BJOY. Basically, that's the 'P' in our PRIME strategy. Profitability is very key. Again, long-term trackers of National Bank of Oman would have seen, over the last five and a half to six years now, a very disciplined approach.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: I'll attempt also at a macro level, Bijoy. Basically, that's the P in our PRIME strategy. Profitability is very key. Again, long-term trackers of National Bank of Oman would have seen the last five and a half, six years now, a very disciplined approach. Any steps, especially, say, on the M&A or inorganic side, will only be driven by how accretive that step is for shareholders. The Omani banking sector tends to hover around the 9% ROE approximately, driven really by the largest bank in the country that has a slightly higher ROE than the industry average. Most of the peers are maybe below our performance. It is slightly a banking sector benchmark level, and we are aiming to exceed that. Like Giri mentioned, we are slowly moving towards the cost of capital level.

Abdullah Hinai: I'll attempt also at a macro level, Bijoy. Basically, that's the P in our PRIME strategy. Profitability is very key. Again, long-term trackers of National Bank of Oman would have seen the last five and a half, six years now, a very disciplined approach. Any steps, especially, say, on the M&A or inorganic side, will only be driven by how accretive that step is for shareholders. The Omani banking sector tends to hover around the 9% ROE approximately, driven really by the largest bank in the country that has a slightly higher ROE than the industry average. Most of the peers are maybe below our performance. It is slightly a banking sector benchmark level, and we are aiming to exceed that. Like Giri mentioned, we are slowly moving towards the cost of capital level.

Speaker #1: Any steps, especially, say, on the M&A or inorganic side, will only be driven by how accretive that step is for shareholders. The Omani banking sector tends to hover around 9% ROE, approximately.

Speaker #1: Driven really by the largest bank in the country, that is, it has a slightly higher ROE than the industry average. But most of the peers are maybe below our performance.

Speaker #1: So, it is slightly a banking sector benchmark level, and we are aiming to exceed that, like Giri mentioned. We are slowly moving towards the cost of capital level.

Speaker #1: Definitely, it will not happen in a year or two, but achieving it over the planned period is our aim, inshallah. The cost-to-income ratio is, again, a focus area.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Definitely, it will not happen in a year or two, but over the planned period is our aim, Inshallah. The cost-to-income ratio is again, a focus area. Again, we are disciplined there. Year-on-year improvement in the cost element, but also we need to continuously maintain adequate investment, especially on the technology side. There are quite a bit of upgrades that are required, regulatory mandated requirements, plus the business requirements. We continuously looking at such CapEx investment, which will maintain our leadership position on the digital side. In my view, probably we should be looking at around the 40% and 41% as kind of a benchmark. If we outperform that by reducing it, then great, but our aim is to ensure that we don't under-invest for the future of this organization. I hope we responded to your question.

Abdullah Hinai: Definitely, it will not happen in a year or two, but over the planned period is our aim, Inshallah. The cost-to-income ratio is again, a focus area. Again, we are disciplined there. Year-on-year improvement in the cost element, but also we need to continuously maintain adequate investment, especially on the technology side. There are quite a bit of upgrades that are required, regulatory mandated requirements, plus the business requirements. We continuously looking at such CapEx investment, which will maintain our leadership position on the digital side. In my view, probably we should be looking at around the 40% and 41% as kind of a benchmark. If we outperform that by reducing it, then great, but our aim is to ensure that we don't under-invest for the future of this organization. I hope we responded to your question.

Speaker #1: Again, we are disciplined there. Year-on-year improvement in the cost element, but also we need to continuously maintain adequate investment, especially on the technology side.

Speaker #1: There are quite a few upgrades that are required—regulatory mandated requirements, plus the business requirements. So, we are continuously looking at such CapEx investments, which will maintain our leadership position on the digital side.

Speaker #1: So, in my view, we should probably be looking at around 40–41% as kind of a benchmark. If we outperform that by reducing it, then great.

Speaker #1: But our aim is to ensure that we don't underinvest for the future of this organization. I hope we have responded to your question.

Speaker #3: Yeah. But just to follow up, like given the country's vision of being part of the EM, and get upgraded to the EM basket, and the comparison will be with similar EM names, and they have been able to deliver on an average 12% return on equity, and there are countries which are large in geographical area, they have advancing on digitization, cross-selling, and multiple levers of improving the profitability.

[Analyst] (QIC Asset Management): Yeah. Just to follow up, given the country's vision of being part of the EM and get upgraded to the EM basket, the comparison will be with similar EM names. They have been able to deliver, on an average, 12% return on equity. There are countries which are large in geographical area. They are advancing on digitization, cross-selling, multiple levers of improving the profitability. When compared to those peers, the return on equity is quite far, which should be, I know within Oman, you're the second-best, but for somebody who has to look at it and compare, there's a huge gap.

Bijoy Joy: Yeah. Just to follow up, given the country's vision of being part of the EM and get upgraded to the EM basket, the comparison will be with similar EM names. They have been able to deliver, on an average, 12% return on equity. There are countries which are large in geographical area. They are advancing on digitization, cross-selling, multiple levers of improving the profitability. When compared to those peers, the return on equity is quite far, which should be, I know within Oman, you're the second-best, but for somebody who has to look at it and compare, there's a huge gap.

Speaker #3: So, when compared to those peers, the return on equity is quite far, which should be—I know within Oman you're the second best—but for somebody who has to look at it and compare, there's still a huge gap.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Yeah.

Abdullah Hinai: Yeah.

Speaker #3: I'm not sure what you can do to bridge that gap, but if that's the vision of the country, it can't be just compared to Omani names.

[Analyst] (QIC Asset Management): I'm not sure what you can do to bridge that gap, but if that's the vision of the country, it can't be just compared to Oman names.

Bijoy Joy: I'm not sure what you can do to bridge that gap, but if that's the vision of the country, it can't be just compared to Oman names.

Speaker #1: Sure, like you said, global investors do have options to look at different geographies, and different banks for that matter. Again, my responsibility is limited to the National Bank of Oman.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Sure. Like you said, global investors do have options to look at different geographies, different banks for that matter. Again, my responsibility is limited to National Bank of Oman, benchmarking ourselves to, are we very different from the market? I think we are ahead of the market, better than the market. Definitely, our aspiration is to move towards the cost of capital levels, but it will take time. We cannot overnight kind of increase and pull a lever to go to a double digit, even if it's low double digit, levels of ROE. We are inching. We are moving in the right direction, and we are quite happy in terms of the performance. In terms of net result, in terms of attracting attention, attracting investors, NBO has been quite successful, be it in its different instrument issuance. We talked about the AT1, which has been quite widely subscribed for.

Abdullah Hinai: Sure. Like you said, global investors do have options to look at different geographies, different banks for that matter. Again, my responsibility is limited to National Bank of Oman, benchmarking ourselves to, are we very different from the market? I think we are ahead of the market, better than the market. Definitely, our aspiration is to move towards the cost of capital levels, but it will take time. We cannot overnight kind of increase and pull a lever to go to a double digit, even if it's low double digit, levels of ROE. We are inching. We are moving in the right direction, and we are quite happy in terms of the performance. In terms of net result, in terms of attracting attention, attracting investors, NBO has been quite successful, be it in its different instrument issuance. We talked about the AT1, which has been quite widely subscribed for.

Speaker #1: Benchmarking ourselves to see if we are very different from the market, I think we are ahead of the market—better than the market. Definitely, our aspiration is to move towards the cost of capital levels.

Speaker #1: But it'll take time. We cannot overnight kind of increase and pull a lever to go to a double digit even if it's low double digit levels of ROE.

Speaker #1: We are inching forward. We are moving in the right direction. And we are quite happy in terms of the performance. In terms of net result, in terms of attracting attention and attracting investors, NBO has been quite successful, be it in its different instrument issuances.

Speaker #1: We talked about the 81, which has been quite widely subscribed for. We had multiple times oversubscription there. On the share price, we've seen substantial improvement on the share price.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: We had multiple X oversubscription there. On the share price, we've seen a substantial improvement on the share price. Again, when we started our journey, we were around OMR 0.160, OMR 0.170. Today, we are around the 400 plus something levels. All in all, with better matrices, we hope that the performance will continue on the share price to continue to be better.

Abdullah Hinai: We had multiple X oversubscription there. On the share price, we've seen a substantial improvement on the share price. Again, when we started our journey, we were around OMR 0.160, OMR 0.170. Today, we are around the 400 plus something levels. All in all, with better matrices, we hope that the performance will continue on the share price to continue to be better.

Speaker #1: Again, when we started our journey, we are around we were around 160, 160, 170 pesa. Today, we are around the 400 plus something levels.

Speaker #1: So all in all, with the better metrics, we hope that the performance will continue and the share price will continue to be better.

Speaker #3: Thank you. That's it from my side.

[Analyst] (QIC Asset Management): Thank you. That's it from my side.

Bijoy Joy: Thank you. That's it from my side.

Speaker #2: Anyone else has any other questions?

[Company Representative] (National Bank of Oman): Anyone else has any other questions?

Operator: Anyone else has any other questions?

Speaker #4: I think there's a question that came up in the chat box.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: I think there's a question that came up in the chat box.

Abdullah Hinai: I think there's a question that came up in the chat box.

Speaker #2: Sure. From.

[Company Representative] (National Bank of Oman): From-

Operator: From-

Speaker #4: Hi, Shrikant. Hi, Shrikant. So, from our perspective, Joyce has got the next question. We'll come to you in a minute, Joyce. So, guidance on important line items—look, our forward-looking guidance is limited.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Hi, Srikanth. From our perspective, yeah, Joyce has got the next question. We'll come to you in a minute, Joyce. Guidance on important line items. Look, our ability to provide a forward-looking guidance is limited. We don't necessarily put out forward-looking guidance as set out by the stock exchange here. We've said to you that in our strategy, the PRIME strategy that the CEO talked about, we aim to improve the return on equity, the Bijoy question just now, to double digits. Cost income ratio, not too below this current number. Cost of risk, we are around the 30 basis points number, slightly higher because of prudency that we took in H1, took in some additional provisions. I think the current numbers are satisfactory, very satisfactory, 30 basis points.

Giridhar Varadachari: Hi, Srikanth. From our perspective, yeah, Joyce has got the next question. We'll come to you in a minute, Joyce. Guidance on important line items. Look, our ability to provide a forward-looking guidance is limited. We don't necessarily put out forward-looking guidance as set out by the stock exchange here. We've said to you that in our strategy, the PRIME strategy that the CEO talked about, we aim to improve the return on equity, the Bijoy question just now, to double digits. Cost income ratio, not too below this current number. Cost of risk, we are around the 30 basis points number, slightly higher because of prudency that we took in H1, took in some additional provisions. I think the current numbers are satisfactory, very satisfactory, 30 basis points.

Speaker #4: We don't necessarily put out forward-looking guidance as set out by the stock exchange here. But we've said to you that in our strategy—the prime strategy that the CEO talked about—we aim to improve the return on equity, which was the BNOI question just now.

Speaker #4: To double digits, and the cost-to-income ratio not too far below the current number. Cost of risk: we are around the 30 basis points mark, slightly higher because of prudence that we took in H1—took in some additional provisions.

Speaker #4: I think the current numbers are satisfactory, very satisfactory—30 basis points. And for the capital ratio, we put out that we aim to work around the 16 to 16.5 percent total CAR, and CET1 of around the 11 percent mark.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Capital ratio, we put out this that we aim to work around the 16% and 16.5% total CAR and CET1 of around 11% mark. That's broadly where we leave this question, please.

Giridhar Varadachari: Capital ratio, we put out this that we aim to work around the 16% and 16.5% total CAR and CET1 of around 11% mark. That's broadly where we leave this question, please.

Speaker #4: So that's broadly where we leave this question, please.

Speaker #1: I'll just add maybe a few cents. Thank you, Shrikant. Giri had mentioned in one of the slides that the focus has been predominantly on the GRE. This was a key business driver for us in the first four years of the journey.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: I'll just add maybe.

Abdullah Hinai: I'll just add maybe.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Yeah

Giridhar Varadachari: Yeah

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: a few cents. Thank you, Srikanth. Giri had mentioned in one of the slides that the focus has been predominantly on the GRE. This was a key business driver for us in the first four years of the journey. Slowly we started to also pivot. Number one, the risk profile in the market has become more conducive for us to look at that, more comfortable levels, and it continues to improve year on year. Specifically this year, I think there's quite a high level of comfort, even with the geopolitical situation in the local market. We've been pivoting away from the GRE. GRE and sovereign tends to be the highest credit rating in any kind of country. Any model might throw maybe slightly higher kind of ECL, plus minus a few basis points here and there.

Abdullah Hinai: a few cents. Thank you, Srikanth. Giri had mentioned in one of the slides that the focus has been predominantly on the GRE. This was a key business driver for us in the first four years of the journey. Slowly we started to also pivot. Number one, the risk profile in the market has become more conducive for us to look at that, more comfortable levels, and it continues to improve year on year. Specifically this year, I think there's quite a high level of comfort, even with the geopolitical situation in the local market. We've been pivoting away from the GRE. GRE and sovereign tends to be the highest credit rating in any kind of country. Any model might throw maybe slightly higher kind of ECL, plus minus a few basis points here and there.

Speaker #1: But slowly, we started to also pivot. Number one, the risk profile in the market has become more conducive for us to look at that—more comfortable levels.

Speaker #1: And it continues to improve year on year. Specifically this year, I think there's quite a high level of comfort, even with the geopolitical situation, in the local market.

Speaker #1: So, we've been pivoting away from the GRE. GRE and sovereign tend to be the highest credit rating in any country. So, any model might throw slightly higher ECL, plus or minus a few basis points here and there.

Speaker #1: So maybe, as a result of our change in our approach, as we build business in the regular side of corporate in particular, you might see slight changes in our cost of credit there, but not to an alarming level because we have a very kind of robust underwriting approach.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Maybe, as a result of our change in our approach as we build a new business in the regular side of corporate in particular, you might see slight changes in our cost of credit there, but not to alarming level because we have a very robust underwriting approach. This should be more than compensated on improved margins, which is the NII piece that you've alluded to. Clear result of that is also reflective in the H1 2026, we believe this should continue. Margins on the non-GRE side tend to be much better than on the GRE side as well. Add to that, the more conducive risk profile in the market.

Abdullah Hinai: Maybe, as a result of our change in our approach as we build a new business in the regular side of corporate in particular, you might see slight changes in our cost of credit there, but not to alarming level because we have a very robust underwriting approach. This should be more than compensated on improved margins, which is the NII piece that you've alluded to. Clear result of that is also reflective in the H1 2026, we believe this should continue. Margins on the non-GRE side tend to be much better than on the GRE side as well. Add to that, the more conducive risk profile in the market.

Speaker #1: But this should be more than compensated by improved margins, which is the NII piece that you've alluded to. The clear result of that is also reflected in the first half of 2026.

Speaker #1: And we believe this should continue. Margins on the non-GRE side tend to be much better than on the GRE side as well. Add to that the more conducive risk profile in the market.

Speaker #4: Shrikant, I hope we've given you some flavor there. Okay, let's go to the next question. Joyce, over to you, please. Good to see you.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Srikanth, I hope we've given you some flavor there. Okay, let's go to the next question. Joyce, over to you, please. Good to see you.

Giridhar Varadachari: Srikanth, I hope we've given you some flavor there. Okay, let's go to the next question. Joyce, over to you, please. Good to see you.

Speaker #5: Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation. Congratulations on the strong set of numbers, and thank you for taking my question.

[Analyst]: Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation. Congratulations on the good set of numbers, thank you for taking my question. My first question is on your loan book growth. See, this Q1, we have seen you adding almost around OMR 300 million in loans, that has been one of the highs that we have seen in the recent times. Could you please explain what are the key drivers that has led to this double-digit growth in, not only for NBO, but for the entire banking sector? We've seen extremely good numbers in terms of asset additions. What are the key drivers that have resulted in this kind of growth, how do you see the growth or the asset, the credit market momentum going for the remaining part of the year and for 2027?

[Analyst]: Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation. Congratulations on the good set of numbers, thank you for taking my question. My first question is on your loan book growth. See, this Q1, we have seen you adding almost around OMR 300 million in loans, that has been one of the highs that we have seen in the recent times. Could you please explain what are the key drivers that has led to this double-digit growth in, not only for NBO, but for the entire banking sector? We've seen extremely good numbers in terms of asset additions. What are the key drivers that have resulted in this kind of growth, how do you see the growth or the asset, the credit market momentum going for the remaining part of the year and for 2027?

Speaker #5: My first question is on your loan book growth. This first quarter, we have seen you adding almost OMR 300 million in loans, and that has been one of the highest that we have seen in recent times.

Speaker #5: Could you please explain what are the key drivers that have led to this double-digit growth, not only for NBO but for the entire banking sector?

Speaker #5: We have seen extremely strong numbers in terms of asset additions. What are the key drivers that have resulted in this kind of growth?

Speaker #5: And how do you see the growth, or the asset and credit market momentum going forward for the remaining part of the year? And for 2027, if you can throw some light on that, that would be much appreciated.

[Analyst]: If you can throw some light on that would be much appreciated.

[Analyst]: If you can throw some light on that would be much appreciated.

Speaker #1: Thank you, Joyce. And again, I'll link it to the responses we gave on the previous few questions. A key aspect for us is that the risk profile in the local market has been improving year on year.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Thank you, Joyce. Again, I'll link it to the responses we gave on the previous few questions. Key aspect for us is that the risk profile in the local market has been improving year on year. In particular, even if you take into account the blip or the situation when the geopolitical situation erupted, there was a little bit of negativity and worry. Oman continued to be very robust and strong, and showed very positive sign. A lot of the planned CapEx investment continued without any kind of known or major cancellation there. National Bank of Oman took that opportunity, like I mentioned, we shifted gears maybe late 2024. Took more steam in 2025 and 2026, where we slowly built or grew more on the non-GRE side, in particular sectors like your power sectors and other sectors, which has shown very positive signs.

Abdullah Hinai: Thank you, Joyce. Again, I'll link it to the responses we gave on the previous few questions. Key aspect for us is that the risk profile in the local market has been improving year on year. In particular, even if you take into account the blip or the situation when the geopolitical situation erupted, there was a little bit of negativity and worry. Oman continued to be very robust and strong, and showed very positive sign. A lot of the planned CapEx investment continued without any kind of known or major cancellation there. National Bank of Oman took that opportunity, like I mentioned, we shifted gears maybe late 2024. Took more steam in 2025 and 2026, where we slowly built or grew more on the non-GRE side, in particular sectors like your power sectors and other sectors, which has shown very positive signs.

Speaker #1: And in particular, even if you take into account the blip, or the situation when the geopolitical situation erupted, there was a little bit of negativity and worry.

Speaker #1: Oman continued to be very robust and strong, and showed very positive signs. A lot of the planned capex investment continued without any known or major cancellations there.

Speaker #1: National Bank of Oman took that opportunity, and like I mentioned, we shifted gears maybe in late 2024, took more steam in 2025 and 2026, where we slowly built or grew more on the non-GRE side, in particular sectors like your power sectors and other sectors, which have shown very positive signs.

Speaker #1: So we believe that for this year, and hopefully even for 2027, we will see strong opportunities—good opportunities—for lending. How much growth we achieve will also depend on the second point that I've emphasized: profitable growth.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: We believe that for this year, hopefully even for 2027, to see strong opportunities, good opportunities for lending. How much growth will also dependent on the second point that I've emphasized, profitable growth. Again, we need to be focused on our ROE and improving the ROE piece. We are happy to see growth as long as it's a shareholder-accretive growth. I want to emphasize this, very important. We will not rush to do something just for the sake of growth. We'll not chase growth for the sake of growth. It has to be a profitable growth for us.

Abdullah Hinai: We believe that for this year, hopefully even for 2027, to see strong opportunities, good opportunities for lending. How much growth will also dependent on the second point that I've emphasized, profitable growth. Again, we need to be focused on our ROE and improving the ROE piece. We are happy to see growth as long as it's a shareholder-accretive growth. I want to emphasize this, very important. We will not rush to do something just for the sake of growth. We'll not chase growth for the sake of growth. It has to be a profitable growth for us.

Speaker #1: Again, we need to be focused on ROE and improving the ROE piece. So, we are happy to see growth as long as it's shareholder-accretive growth.

Speaker #1: So, I want to emphasize this: it is very important. We will not rush to do something just for the sake of growth. We will not chase growth for the sake of growth.

Speaker #1: It has to be profitable growth for us.

Speaker #4: If I may, please, I'd like to add—thank you. So Joyce, one of the things you've been following with us is the discipline in the pace of execution.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Just if I may please add. Thank you. Joyce, one of the things that you've been following us is the discipline and the pace of execution. As the CEO mentioned, clearly we've gotten the bank to a very good place relative to the market on return on equity, cost-income ratio, profitability, et cetera. One of the things that we struggle a little bit is to see what's happening in the market in terms of pricing of loans or deposits. Again, what differentiates us, certainly internally, we are very disciplined, right? We're not going to chase something because some other bank is doing it to grab market share. This is an ongoing scene here in the banking industry, what will differentiate us, we believe in the long run, is being very disciplined with the growth. Hopefully, we've given you a flavor. Please shoot any follow-up questions. Thank you.

Giridhar Varadachari: Just if I may please add. Thank you. Joyce, one of the things that you've been following us is the discipline and the pace of execution. As the CEO mentioned, clearly we've gotten the bank to a very good place relative to the market on return on equity, cost-income ratio, profitability, et cetera. One of the things that we struggle a little bit is to see what's happening in the market in terms of pricing of loans or deposits. Again, what differentiates us, certainly internally, we are very disciplined, right? We're not going to chase something because some other bank is doing it to grab market share. This is an ongoing scene here in the banking industry, what will differentiate us, we believe in the long run, is being very disciplined with the growth. Hopefully, we've given you a flavor. Please shoot any follow-up questions. Thank you.

Speaker #4: As the CEO mentioned, clearly we've gotten the Bank to a very good place relative to the market on return on equity, cost-income ratio, profitability, etc.

Speaker #4: But one of the things that we struggle with a little bit is seeing what's happening in the market in terms of pricing of loans or deposits.

Speaker #4: Again, what differentiates us—certainly internally—is that we are very disciplined, right? We're not going to chase something because some other bank is doing it to grab market share.

Speaker #4: This is an ongoing scene here. The banking industry—and what will differentiate us, we believe, in the long run—is being very disciplined with the growth.

Speaker #4: Hopefully, we've given you a flavor. Please feel free to shoot if you have any follow-up questions. Thank you.

Speaker #5: Sure, that's very clear. Thank you very much. The next one that I have is on the two new regulatory developments that have happened. CBO has announced that the Islamic Banking Windows of conventional banks should be separated and run as independent entities.

[Analyst]: Sure. That's very clear. Thank you very much. Next one that I have is on the new two regulatory developments that has happened. CBO has announced that the Islamic banking windows of conventional banks should be separated and run as an independent entity. Even though CBO is yet to clarify on the timelines, I just wanted to pick your brain on what are your thoughts on this one. The second regulatory change that we have seen is from the FSA, which said banks cannot run the investment banking operations as part of their core banking activities, and it has to be done through an independent entity. How do you see these two regulations panning out, especially when FSA has put a timeline of three years for you to separate the investment banking entities?

[Analyst]: Sure. That's very clear. Thank you very much. Next one that I have is on the new two regulatory developments that has happened. CBO has announced that the Islamic banking windows of conventional banks should be separated and run as an independent entity. Even though CBO is yet to clarify on the timelines, I just wanted to pick your brain on what are your thoughts on this one. The second regulatory change that we have seen is from the FSA, which said banks cannot run the investment banking operations as part of their core banking activities, and it has to be done through an independent entity. How do you see these two regulations panning out, especially when FSA has put a timeline of three years for you to separate the investment banking entities?

Speaker #5: Even though CBO doesn't have ECF to clarify the timelines, I just wanted to pick your brain on what your thoughts are on this one.

Speaker #5: The second regulatory change that we have seen is from the FSA, which said banks cannot run their investment banking operations as part of their core banking activities.

Speaker #5: And it has to be done through an independent entity. So how do you see these two regulations panning out, especially when the FSA has put a timeline of three years for you to separate the investment banking entities?

Speaker #5: So, how do you see this panning out, and what kind of potential impact on the operations and the financial performance of banks do you see coming up over the next three to five years?

[Analyst]: How do you see this panning out, and what kind of potential impact on the operations and the financial performance of banks do you see coming up over the next three to five years?

[Analyst]: How do you see this panning out, and what kind of potential impact on the operations and the financial performance of banks do you see coming up over the next three to five years?

Speaker #1: Sure. Thank you very much. Very important question. So I'll attempt at the macro and then maybe slightly drill into National Bank of Oman in particular.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Sure. Thank you very much. A very important question. I'll attempt at the macro and then maybe slightly drill into National Bank of Oman in particular. For the benefit of everyone else, there've been a slew of new regulatory changes that has happened in H1 of this year. In particular, what came towards the end of Q2 was, number 1, the need for separation of Islamic banking windows to separate entities. These entities will also, at a point of time, will have to also be listed on the stock exchange as well. Banks can own, for a temporary period of time, 100%, but then will have to sell a portion of that. Also, FSA issued regulatory framework towards separation of investment banking activities. Both of these businesses are very key for banking sector, contributed very positively.

Abdullah Hinai: Sure. Thank you very much. A very important question. I'll attempt at the macro and then maybe slightly drill into National Bank of Oman in particular. For the benefit of everyone else, there've been a slew of new regulatory changes that has happened in H1 of this year. In particular, what came towards the end of Q2 was, number 1, the need for separation of Islamic banking windows to separate entities. These entities will also, at a point of time, will have to also be listed on the stock exchange as well. Banks can own, for a temporary period of time, 100%, but then will have to sell a portion of that. Also, FSA issued regulatory framework towards separation of investment banking activities. Both of these businesses are very key for banking sector, contributed very positively.

Speaker #1: So, for the benefit of everyone else, there have been a slew of new regulatory changes that have happened in the first half of this year. In particular, what came towards the end of Q2 was, number one, the need for the separation of Islamic banking windows into separate entities.

Speaker #1: And these entities will also, at a point in time, have to be listed on the stock exchange as well. So, banks can own, for a temporary period of time, 100%, but then will have to sell a portion of that.

Speaker #1: And also FSA issued regulatory framework for separation of investment banking activities. Both of these businesses are very key for banking sector, contributed very positively.

Speaker #1: Some of the activities in particular asset management or wealth management where wealth in wealth management we do sell funds and other investment products for high the premier segment of our retail business, particularly the high net worth individuals.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Some of the activities, in particular asset management or wealth management, where in wealth management, we do sell funds and other investment products for the premier segment of our retail business, particularly the high-net-worth individuals. They are large contributor to bank's fee income side as well. For the Islamic banking, I think there's strong opportunities that are there. We've seen substantial growth that has been there, especially in the last few years, with few corporates, and in particular GREs, preferring Islamic structures than conventional side. We've seen the total Islamic banking assets reaching 20% of the total banking sector in Oman. I think one of the highest in a very short span of time in the globe. Personally, I feel there are a lot of ample opportunities there for Islamic banking going forward. Again, the question for NBO is definitely what is the best for shareholders.

Abdullah Hinai: Some of the activities, in particular asset management or wealth management, where in wealth management, we do sell funds and other investment products for the premier segment of our retail business, particularly the high-net-worth individuals. They are large contributor to bank's fee income side as well. For the Islamic banking, I think there's strong opportunities that are there. We've seen substantial growth that has been there, especially in the last few years, with few corporates, and in particular GREs, preferring Islamic structures than conventional side. We've seen the total Islamic banking assets reaching 20% of the total banking sector in Oman. I think one of the highest in a very short span of time in the globe. Personally, I feel there are a lot of ample opportunities there for Islamic banking going forward. Again, the question for NBO is definitely what is the best for shareholders.

Speaker #1: So, they are a large contributor to banks' fee income side as well. For Islamic banking, I think there are strong opportunities. We've seen substantial growth, especially in the last few years, with a few corporates and, in particular, GREs preferring Islamic structures over the conventional side.

Speaker #1: And we've seen the total Islamic banking asset reaching 20% of the total banking sector in Oman. I think one of the highest in a very short span of time in the globe.

Speaker #1: So, personally, I feel there are a lot of ample opportunities there for Islamic banking going forward. Again, the question for NBO is definitely what is best for shareholders.

Speaker #1: We've been in discussions with our board. We updated the board in the last board meeting. We are yet to go back with a certain recommendation.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: We've been in discussions with our board. We updated the board in the last board meeting. We are yet to go back with a certain recommendation. As per the regulation that was issued, banks will have to respond to the Central Bank of Oman before 31 December with their preferred option, with justification, approved by the board. We are in the process of doing an in-depth analysis. Again, Muzn has contributed very positively to National Bank of Oman. We have positive view about the sector. Key aspect for us is ensuring that the return and its accretive to shareholders will continue to be there. On the investment banking side Although FSA did issue, we hear that Central Bank might come up also with certain kind of regulation that will be applicable to banks. We are waiting for clarification on that front as well.

Abdullah Hinai: We've been in discussions with our board. We updated the board in the last board meeting. We are yet to go back with a certain recommendation. As per the regulation that was issued, banks will have to respond to the Central Bank of Oman before 31 December with their preferred option, with justification, approved by the board. We are in the process of doing an in-depth analysis. Again, Muzn has contributed very positively to National Bank of Oman. We have positive view about the sector. Key aspect for us is ensuring that the return and its accretive to shareholders will continue to be there. On the investment banking side Although FSA did issue, we hear that Central Bank might come up also with certain kind of regulation that will be applicable to banks. We are waiting for clarification on that front as well.

Speaker #1: As per the regulation that was issued, banks will have to respond to the Central Bank of Oman before the 31st of December with their preferred option.

Speaker #1: With justification, approved by the board. So we are in the process of doing an in-depth analysis again. Musin has contributed very positively to National Bank of Oman.

Speaker #1: We have a positive view about the sector. The key aspect for us is ensuring that the return, and its accretiveness to shareholders, will continue to be there.

Speaker #1: On the investment banking side, although FSA did issue, we hear that the central bank might also come up with certain kinds of regulations that will be applicable to banks.

Speaker #1: So, we are waiting for clarification on that front as well. We are governed by both regulators, and we'll aim to comply with the regulations of both.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: We are governed by both regulators, and we'll aim to comply with the regulation of both, but we also need to wait to see what the Central Bank will also issue. In terms of what would happen, I think we can see potentially slew of potential M&A in the market on that front. We've seen initial actions, but probably there could be some more.

Abdullah Hinai: We are governed by both regulators, and we'll aim to comply with the regulation of both, but we also need to wait to see what the Central Bank will also issue. In terms of what would happen, I think we can see potentially slew of potential M&A in the market on that front. We've seen initial actions, but probably there could be some more.

Speaker #1: But we also need to wait to see what the central bank will issue. In terms of what would happen, I think we could potentially see a slew of M&A in the market on that front.

Speaker #1: We've seen initial actions, but there could probably be some more.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Joyce, I hope we gave you a little bit of color there.

Giridhar Varadachari: Joyce, I hope we gave you a little bit of color there.

Speaker #4: Joyce, I hope we gave you a little bit of color there.

Speaker #5: Yes, thank you very much. That's it for me. Thank you. Wish you all the best.

[Analyst]: Yes. Thank you very much. That's just all.

[Analyst]: Yes. Thank you very much. That's just all.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Thank you.

Abdullah Hinai: Thank you.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Thank you.

Abdullah Hinai: Thank you.

[Analyst]: Thank you.

[Analyst]: Thank you.

[Analyst]: Wish you all the best.

[Analyst]: Wish you all the best.

Speaker #4: Thank you. There's a question in the chat box—can you just go to that question, please, Mohammed? So, thank you for your presentation.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Thank you. There's a question in the chat box from Can you just go to that question, please? Mohammed Isa. Thank you for your presentation. Impairment charges increased faster than loan growth. What were the main reasons behind the increase? Should we expect it similar? Let's just go through this. If you please look at our detailed financials which were published. The loan growth on a gross basis, gross I'm talking about is 9.3%. The impairment, then you see net impairment is up 38.2%. If you just look at the split then, you will see that gross impairment is up 14.2% and recoveries are down 20.6%, please. That's not in these financials. I'm talking about retail published financials, which have been published on MSX. They're available on MSX and our own website.

Giridhar Varadachari: Thank you. There's a question in the chat box from Can you just go to that question, please? Mohammed Isa. Thank you for your presentation. Impairment charges increased faster than loan growth. What were the main reasons behind the increase? Should we expect it similar? Let's just go through this. If you please look at our detailed financials which were published. The loan growth on a gross basis, gross I'm talking about is 9.3%. The impairment, then you see net impairment is up 38.2%. If you just look at the split then, you will see that gross impairment is up 14.2% and recoveries are down 20.6%, please. That's not in these financials. I'm talking about retail published financials, which have been published on MSX. They're available on MSX and our own website.

Speaker #4: Impairment charges increased faster than loan growth. What were the main reasons behind the increase? Should we expect a similar trend? So let's just go through this.

Speaker #4: If you please look at our detailed financials, which were published, the loan growth on a gross basis—gross, I'm talking about—is 9.3%.

Speaker #4: The impairment—then you see net impairment is up 38.2%. But if you just look at the split, you'll see that gross impairments are up 14.2%, and recoveries are down 20.6%, please.

Speaker #4: That's not in these financials. I'm talking about retail published financials, which have been published on MSX. They're available on MSX and our own website.

Speaker #4: So, it's not necessarily anything alarming there in terms of, oh, loan growth grew this much and impairment has grown. No, not necessarily.

Giridhar S Varadachari: It's not necessarily nothing alarming there in terms of, oh, loan growth do this much and impairment is growth, not necessarily. One, as we say, our commitment on impairment is that we will be prudent. Given the macroeconomic developments in the region, we wanted to be a tad more conservative than usual on impairment. That's the reason why we front-loaded some of our impairment charges into H1. You know very well what's happening in the region, we wanted to be prudent and up front-load some of the charges, number one. Number two, year on year, loan recovery is something that we are very focused on because that helps all of us. As we said, there are no new additions to our recovery portfolio in the last five years. We are talking about recovering a fairly old book, historic legacy, whatever.

Giridhar Varadachari: It's not necessarily nothing alarming there in terms of, oh, loan growth do this much and impairment is growth, not necessarily. One, as we say, our commitment on impairment is that we will be prudent. Given the macroeconomic developments in the region, we wanted to be a tad more conservative than usual on impairment. That's the reason why we front-loaded some of our impairment charges into H1. You know very well what's happening in the region, we wanted to be prudent and up front-load some of the charges, number one. Number two, year on year, loan recovery is something that we are very focused on because that helps all of us. As we said, there are no new additions to our recovery portfolio in the last five years. We are talking about recovering a fairly old book, historic legacy, whatever.

Speaker #4: As we say, our commitment regarding impairment is that we will be prudent. Given the macroeconomic developments in the region, we wanted to be a tad more conservative than usual on impairment.

Speaker #4: That's the reason why we front-loaded some of our impairment charges into the first half. You know very well what's happening in the region.

Speaker #4: So we wanted to be prudent. And upfront load some of these charges, number one. Number two, year on year, the recovery book is a loan recovery is something that we are very focused on because that helps all of us.

Speaker #4: But as we said, there have been no new additions to our recovery portfolio in the last five years—no new ones. So we are talking about recovering a fairly old book: historic, legacy, whatever.

Speaker #4: For those of us who've been with us, the CEO and I do not use the word "legacy." We take responsibility for what is there.

Giridhar S Varadachari: For those of us who've been with us, the CEO and I do not use the word legacy. We take responsibility for what is there, and we try to solve for that. The historic book then, there's only so much you can potentially recover. It's slow as well, given the legal system. Not that we can't recover, but the pace is slower. That's why the recovery number itself was lower year on year. That is why you see that big increase. Nothing alarming at all. Full year, again, we don't give necessarily publish out guidance, all I would say is we will continue to be prudent in terms of our provisioning. In case the CEO wants to add.

Giridhar Varadachari: For those of us who've been with us, the CEO and I do not use the word legacy. We take responsibility for what is there, and we try to solve for that. The historic book then, there's only so much you can potentially recover. It's slow as well, given the legal system. Not that we can't recover, but the pace is slower. That's why the recovery number itself was lower year on year. That is why you see that big increase. Nothing alarming at all. Full year, again, we don't give necessarily publish out guidance, all I would say is we will continue to be prudent in terms of our provisioning. In case the CEO wants to add.

Speaker #4: And we try to solve for that. With the historic book, there's only so much you can potentially recover. It's slow as well, given the legal system.

Speaker #4: Not that we can't recover, but the pace is slower. That's why the recovery number itself was slower year-on-year. That is why you see that big increase.

Speaker #4: Nothing alarming at all. For the full year again, see, we don't necessarily publish our guidance, but all I would say is we will continue to be prudent in terms of our provisioning. In case the CEO wants to add.

Speaker #1: It's a question of coverage—of how much NPL coverage, if you look at slide 15. Slide 15, yeah. You can see the purple box in the middle: NPL coverage.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: It's a question of coverage, of how much NPL coverage. If you look at the slide 15. Slide 15. You can see the purple box in the middle, NPL coverage have improved from about 91.7% to 97%. It's just prudency and building a cushion. We're concerned a bit on certain sector, in particular hospitality, that got impacted. February, March, and April tend to be part of season for the sector, and as you would appreciate, the disruption in travel, et cetera, happened during that period of time. Has anything panned out until now? Thank God, touch wood, nothing has panned out. Again, prudency that we mentioned, that driven our increased provisioning numbers.

Abdullah Hinai: It's a question of coverage, of how much NPL coverage. If you look at the slide 15. Slide 15. You can see the purple box in the middle, NPL coverage have improved from about 91.7% to 97%. It's just prudency and building a cushion. We're concerned a bit on certain sector, in particular hospitality, that got impacted. February, March, and April tend to be part of season for the sector, and as you would appreciate, the disruption in travel, et cetera, happened during that period of time. Has anything panned out until now? Thank God, touch wood, nothing has panned out. Again, prudency that we mentioned, that driven our increased provisioning numbers.

Speaker #1: Have improved from about 91.7% to 97%. It's just prudency and building a cushion. We were concerned a bit about a certain sector, in particular hospitality, that got impacted.

Speaker #1: February, March, and April tend to be part of the season for the sector. And as you'd appreciate, the disruption in travel, et cetera, happened during that period of time.

Speaker #1: Has anything panned out until now? Alhamdulillah, touch wood, nothing has panned out. But again, prudency that we mentioned has driven our increased provisioning numbers.

Speaker #2: Any other questions?

[Company Representative] (National Bank of Oman): Any other questions?

Operator: Any other questions?

Giridhar S Varadachari: Is one new? Mohammed is saying, did this come down? There is another one. Mohammed has got a question if you want to take that again.

Speaker #1: Is one new?

Giridhar Varadachari: Is one new? Mohammed is saying, did this come down? There is another one. Mohammed has got a question if you want to take that again.

Speaker #4: Mohammed is saying, just come down. Mohammed's got a question, if you want to pick that up.

Speaker #1: It's on the loan rate, even neutral position in the region. Misha, Mohammed's question.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: On the loan rate given neutral position in the region.

Abdullah Hinai: On the loan rate given neutral position in the region.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Mohammed's question was the liquidity provider attract more institution-

Giridhar Varadachari: Mohammed's question was the liquidity provider attract more institution-

Speaker #4: was the liquidity provider. This will attract more institutions.

Speaker #1: Appointing a liquidity provider or taking other steps?

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Attract more institution-

Abdullah Hinai: Attract more institution-

Giridhar S Varadachari: Considering appointing a liquidity or taking other steps.

Abdullah Hinai: Considering appointing a liquidity or taking other steps. Into that too, yeah.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Into that too, yeah.

Speaker #4: Yeah.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Yeah.

Giridhar Varadachari: Yeah.

Speaker #1: Yes, it's part of our kind of review. We had reviewed it two years ago, I think at the start of when MSX launched this initiative. We felt that let's wait and see the experience of others before we take that step.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Yes. It's part of our review. We had reviewed it 2 years ago, I think, or at the start of when MSX launched this initiative. We felt that let's wait and see the experience of others before we take that step. Again, we'll not pause or not stop at anything that will help shareholders as well. We are planning to explore this again, and if we deem it as positive for shareholders, we will undertake it.

Abdullah Hinai: Yes. It's part of our review. We had reviewed it 2 years ago, I think, or at the start of when MSX launched this initiative. We felt that let's wait and see the experience of others before we take that step. Again, we'll not pause or not stop at anything that will help shareholders as well. We are planning to explore this again, and if we deem it as positive for shareholders, we will undertake it.

Speaker #1: Again, we will not pause or stop at anything that will help shareholders as well. So, we are planning to explore this again. And if we deem it as positive for shareholders, we will undertake it.

Speaker #4: Yeah, it can go back to textbook, yeah.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Yes, you can go back to text box, yeah.

Giridhar Varadachari: Yes, you can go back to text box, yeah.

[Company Representative] (National Bank of Oman): Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you very much.

Speaker #1: Can you please elaborate a bit more details on the loan growth given Amman neutral in region development and the potential impact on both nominal and restricted and changing loan mix to non-GRE?

Giridhar S Varadachari: Can you please elaborate a bit more details

Giridhar Varadachari: Can you please elaborate a bit more details. On the loan growth given Oman neutral in region development and the potential impact on them, both nominal and risk-adjusted, and changing loan mix to non-GRE in Sultanate of Oman?

[Company Representative] (National Bank of Oman): On the loan growth given Oman neutral in region development and the potential impact on them, both nominal and risk-adjusted, and changing loan mix to non-GRE in Sultanate of Oman?

Speaker #5: So again, if you look at the different kinds of initiatives or projects in the country, that continues to be as planned, and we believe that it's building up steam as well.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Again, if you look at the different kind of initiatives or projects in the country, that continues to be as planned. We believe that it's building up steam as well. We are quite positive in terms of the loan growth or the opportunities available for us to grow in 2026 and 2027, definitely. How will Oman benefit from its neutral or its position? There's maybe a lot of factors that might come into play there that are beyond our skill sets or ability to anticipate. Again, overall, we believe that it will only be positive for the country, and it will be potentially a net addition over and above the opportunities that we are aware of. For example, two weeks ago, the government announced about OMR 4 billion of project in Salalah. New infrastructure, transportation, et cetera.

Abdullah Hinai: Again, if you look at the different kind of initiatives or projects in the country, that continues to be as planned. We believe that it's building up steam as well. We are quite positive in terms of the loan growth or the opportunities available for us to grow in 2026 and 2027, definitely. How will Oman benefit from its neutral or its position? There's maybe a lot of factors that might come into play there that are beyond our skill sets or ability to anticipate. Again, overall, we believe that it will only be positive for the country, and it will be potentially a net addition over and above the opportunities that we are aware of. For example, two weeks ago, the government announced about OMR 4 billion of project in Salalah. New infrastructure, transportation, et cetera.

Speaker #5: So we are quite positive. In terms of the loan growth or the opportunities available for us to grow in 2026 and 2027, definitely.

Speaker #5: How will Oman benefit from its neutral position? There may be a lot of factors that could come into play there that are beyond our skill sets or ability to anticipate.

Speaker #5: But again, overall we believe that it'll only be positive for the country, and it'll potentially be a net addition over and above the opportunities that we are aware of.

Speaker #5: One example is, for example, two weeks ago, the government announced about OMR 4 billion of projects in Salalah—for example, new infrastructure, transportation, et cetera.

Speaker #5: $4 billion is approximately, and there's more than $10 billion over a few years. There's a lot of projects in terms of redevelopment of the city of Muscat.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: OMR 4 billion is approximately more than $10 billion over a few years. There's a lot of projects in terms of redevelopment of the city of Muscat, the public transportation system in the country, the water system in the country as well. All these are projects that seems to be coming online as planned. In itself, even if you remove the implication and impacts of the geopolitical situation, we believe that Oman has ample opportunities for us to look at and build a very strong and robust loan book there. Anything that comes from Oman's position, given the geopolitical, will just be a net addition and net positive for that.

Abdullah Hinai: OMR 4 billion is approximately more than $10 billion over a few years. There's a lot of projects in terms of redevelopment of the city of Muscat, the public transportation system in the country, the water system in the country as well. All these are projects that seems to be coming online as planned. In itself, even if you remove the implication and impacts of the geopolitical situation, we believe that Oman has ample opportunities for us to look at and build a very strong and robust loan book there. Anything that comes from Oman's position, given the geopolitical, will just be a net addition and net positive for that.

Speaker #5: The public transportation system in the country, the water system in the country as well – all these are projects that seem to be coming online as planned.

Speaker #5: So, in itself, even if you remove the implications and impacts of the geopolitical situation, we believe that Oman has ample opportunities for us to look at and build a very strong and robust loan book there.

Speaker #5: Anything that comes from Oman's position, given the geopolitical situation, will just be a net addition and a net positive for that.

Speaker #4: So, hope we've answered your question. Please, Misha.

Giridhar S Varadachari: Hope we have answered your question, please, Misha.

Giridhar Varadachari: Hope we have answered your question, please, Misha.

Speaker #2: Any other questions? Okay, then. There are no further questions. We would like to thank you all for joining us today, and we truly appreciate your participation.

[Company Representative] (National Bank of Oman): Any other questions? Okay. There are no further questions. We would like to thank you all for joining us today, and we truly appreciate your participation. Inshallah, hope to see you on the upcoming sessions.

Operator: Any other questions? Okay. There are no further questions. We would like to thank you all for joining us today, and we truly appreciate your participation. Inshallah, hope to see you on the upcoming sessions.

Speaker #2: And inshallah, we hope to see you in the upcoming sessions.

Speaker #1: Thank you, everyone. We really appreciate your patience and taking the time. And thank you very much for these interesting and robust questions. We are always available for any further queries that you might have.

Abdullah Zahran Al Hinai: Thank you, everyone. Really appreciate your patience in taking the time, and thank you very much for these interesting and robust questions. We are always available for any further queries that you might have, and happy to tackle it even one-to-one session. Thank you very much, everyone.

Abdullah Hinai: Thank you, everyone. Really appreciate your patience in taking the time, and thank you very much for these interesting and robust questions. We are always available for any further queries that you might have, and happy to tackle it even one-to-one session. Thank you very much, everyone.

Speaker #1: And happy to tackle it even one-to-one, inshallah. Thank you very much. Bye, everyone.

[Company Representative] (National Bank of Oman): Thank you. «Shukran jazilan».

Operator: Thank you. «Shukran jazilan».

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