Bank Mellat's EPS: 656 Rials or 335? The Reason Behind the Conflicting Six-Month Reports (Wednesday, July 8, 2026)

Two different profit-per-share figures for Bank Mellat (Tehran Stock Exchange ticker: Vabmellat, وبملت) have circulated in Iranian financial media for the first half of Iranian fiscal year 1404 (roughly March to September 2025): 656 rials from one outlet and 335 rials from another. Both cite the identical net profit of about 79.36 trillion tomans and both claim similar year-on-year growth of roughly 36 percent. The discrepancy is not a reporting error, but the result of a mid-period capital increase that nearly doubled the bank's share count.

Background

Bank Mellat's registered capital rose across four stages from December 2023 to May 2026, from about 35.3 to 338.2 trillion tomans, a nearly tenfold increase, as previously reported on Sahmino. The six months ended September 21, 2025 (30 Shahrivar 1404) fell right in the middle of that sequence: an interim filing from that period placed the bank's capital at about 237.8 trillion tomans. Some outlets calculated earnings per share using the bank's older, smaller share count from before that stage of the increase, while others used the newly restated, larger share count. That difference in basis alone accounts for nearly a twofold gap in the reported figure.

The numbers

Both EPS figures, along with the ROE and ROA readings, were reported for the six months ended September 21, 2025 (30 Shahrivar 1404), in filings published in late October 2025 (Mehr/Aban 1404). The ratio between the two EPS figures, about 1.96, closely tracks the ratio by which Bank Mellat's capital grew over the same stretch (from roughly 121 to 237.8 trillion tomans, also about 1.96 times). That numerical alignment supports the share-restatement explanation for the gap, though neither original report explicitly states the reason; this reconciliation is Sahmino's own analysis of the published data.

Drivers

Continuing the same capital-increase process, the bank's board proposed a further increase funded from retained earnings (under Article 14, Clause C of Iran's production-support law) that would have raised capital from 237.8 to 373.5 trillion tomans. Shareholders ultimately approved a smaller increase, to the same 338.2 trillion tomans already reported on Sahmino, roughly 42 percent rather than the nearly 57 percent originally proposed. The gap between the proposed and approved figures is itself a measure of how conservatively the assembly treated a retained-earnings-funded increase.

Outlook

Trading in Vabmellat was halted in Tir 1405 (June/July 2026) for a Group B material-information disclosure, coinciding with the approach of the bank's fiscal year 1404 annual report (for the year ended March 19, 2026). That annual report, once published, would be the first to report earnings per share cleanly on the bank's final, settled capital base of 338.2 trillion tomans, resolving the ambiguity between the two six-month figures. Bank Mellat's trailing P/E ratio stood at about 1.85 at the end of fiscal year 1403 (March 2025), then the lowest among listed Iranian banks, alongside 51 percent growth in the stock's market value that fiscal year. Those figures date to the end of fiscal 1403 and should not be read as today's price or P/E.

What to watch

Bank Mellat's fiscal year 1404 annual assembly and report, which will report final EPS on the settled capital base; and the fate of the proposed retained-earnings capital increase against the approved figure.