Bank Muscat Q3 Net Profit Rises 2.5%, Misses Estimates

Bank Muscat, Oman’s largest lender, posted a 2.5 per cent increase in its third-quarter net profit on Wednesday, narrowly missing analysts’ estimates, as gains in income were mostly offset by higher provisioning for bad loans.

The bank made a profit of OMR40.39 million ($104.9 million) in the three months to Sept. 30, it said in a statement to the Muscat bourse. This compared to OMR39.4 million in the corresponding period of 2013.

Five analysts polled by Reuters had, on average, forecast a third-quarter profit of OMR41.15 million.

Impairments in the third quarter rose 49.3 per cent year-on-year to OMR13.35 million, according to Reuters calculations. This nullified an increase of 7.5 per cent in net interest income, which rose to OMR62.3 million rials, and a 18.2 per cent gain in non-interest income, which stood at OMR31.2 million.

Net profit for the first nine months of 2014 was OMR126.7 million, up from OMR102.5 million in the opening nine months of last year, the filing said.

Bank Muscat’s nine-month profit last year was dented by a 15 million rial provision that it was forced to take after being caught up in one of the biggest-ever cyber fraud cases – a provision reversed in full-year numbers after the cash was recouped through its insurers.

Loans and advances rose 7.3 per cent year-on-year to OMR6.43 billion at the end of September, while deposits increased 16.5 per cent over the same time frame to OMR6.58 billion.