MUSCAT: Since inception in April 2007, Sohar International (formerly Bank Sohar) witnessed steady growth, establishing itself as one of the most prominent banks in the country, identifying emerging trends and exceeding customer expectations every step of the way. With a lifecycle approach to Retail and Corporate clients, the bank provides customers a comprehensive and flexible range of products and services while adhering to the highest standards of quality and integrity. Its consistent focus on community welfare through a very active Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme has also earned the organisation countless awards and invaluable recognitions. With such solid foundation and having secured over 10 per cent of market share and acquired a solid customer-base of over quarter a million customers; it was time for the bank to leap into the next stage of development and further boost its contributions to Oman’s overall development by redefining banking and introducing a new era for the brand.
A New Journey of Winning
As the bank celebrates its 12th anniversary in the month of April 2019, it has already embarked on a new journey to transform the banking industry beyond the conventional provision of financial services. Following a change in leadership, the bank successfully drew a long term strategic plan, including a short term plan to execute against immediate priorities. The new strategy is effectively enabling the whole organisation to grow by delivering enhanced performance on the fundamentals to reinforce its competitive edge whilst also delivering a robust contribution to the national economy.
Banking Redefined
The new five-year strategy that was formulated in 2018 by the new management, has repositioned the bank with vigour and laser-sharp focus on the objectives. As part of the strategy, the Bank launched its new brand as “Sohar International” with an aspirational and inspirational vision to become a world-leading Omani service company that helps customers, communities and people to prosper and grow.
This new vision is underpinned by five key pillars: Purpose, Promise, Principles, Personality and the overall Experience. The purpose encompasses the renewed organisational belief of helping people win by delivering banking for their ever changing world, which is supported by the promise for responsive banking services for people to reach any goal.
The bank’s professional workforce has embraced the new brand personality of being Sharp, Human and Unstoppable. These personality attributes can be felt in any interaction through all the bank’s physical or digital touch points, clearly manifesting in the simple principles of offering ‘more velocity’ by making everything simpler and faster; ‘more value’ by making everything relevant and connected to the customers’ world; and ‘more vision’ through streamlining everything towards progressive and liberating interactions. As a result, the organisation is steadily transforming into an ecosystem of financial services, offering differentiated value propositions with unrivalled customer experience.
Elegance, Dynamism and Perpetuity
With this ideology, the new brand’s logo sets to capture the stature and elegance of a financial institution while still feeling dynamic and perpetual. The two semi circles depict the essence of time — the mechanics within a clock’s movement. The orange spike denotes Sohar International being right there in the right place at the right time — capturing the element of precision — at the centre of things that are important to customers.
Strong Financials and Market Trust
Sohar International has seen momentous growth over the years, a pattern that earned it acknowledgement as one of Oman’s ‘Best Performing Companies’ at the 10th Alam Al-Iktisad Wal-Amaal (AIWA) Awards. The bank received the accolade in competition with 25 highly competitive firms for the Large Capital category.
The financial results for 2018 continued to reflect the bank’s spirit of winning, noting 15.9 per cent growth in Net Profit, achieving RO 29.366 million by the close of business on 31st December 2018, a rise from RO 25.331 million in 2017. Furthermore, net interest income during the year increased by 18.7 per cent to RO 56.651 million compared to RO 47.721 million in 2017. Operating income for the year increased to RO 94.438 million, an increase of 23.6 per cent as compared to RO 76.416 million in 2017. The board of directors approved the distribution of cash dividends to shareholders at the rate of 6 per cent of the capital (6 baisas per share).
Reaffirming its positive market position and investor confidence, Sohar International concluded the issuance of RO 100 million unsecured subordinated perpetual bonds with overwhelming success that. The issuance was the largest in local currency by any bank, and the largest by any firm in 2018/2019 under the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and listed in Muscat Securities Market (MSM). The issuance will boost Tier 1 Capital adequacy of the Bank, and with additional CET 1 issuance, Sohar International will be further strengthening its core net worth to emerge as one of the strongest Banks in Oman.
Digital Evolution
With 12 years of solid contributions to people’s banking requirements, Sohar International remains committed to being industry leaders in innovation and seamless technology, a drive that has seen a remarkable boost as part of the new strategy and brand identity. Keeping up with customers’ changing lifestyles, Sohar International introduced ‘eFloos’, a unique e-wallet offered in partnership with Omantel in what has become the first of its kind Telecom - Banking tie-up in the Sultanate.
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