Saudi Lender NCB Q4 Profit Rises 1.7%, Misses Forecast

Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom’s largest bank, posted a 1.7 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, it said on Wednesday, but missed analysts’ forecasts.

The lender made a net profit of SAR1.83 billion($487.6 million) in the three months to December 31, compared to SAR1.79 billion in the same period of 2013, it said in a bourse statement.

This was below the average forecast of three analysts polled by Reuters, who had predicted a quarterly profit of SAR1.94 billion.

It attributed the rise in quarterly profit to increase in operating income, which gained 10 per cent to SAR4.03 billion, without elaborating.

Saudi companies issue brief earnings statements early in the reporting period before publishing more detailed results later.

It is the first time the lender has posted earnings since it completed the largest-ever initial public offer of shares in the Arab world in November, raising SAR22.5 billion.

Its net profit for 2014 was SAR8.66 billion, a 10.2 per cent increase on the previous year.

Saudi Arabian banks have so far appeared to largely shrug off the impact of the fall in oil prices since June 2014, with local interbank rates dipping despite the pressure on crude prices.

Other banks have reported strong earnings growth in the quarter so far, including estimate-beating profits from Samba Financial Group and Banque Saudi Fransi.

NCB in December said it was proposing a dividend of SAR0.65 per share for the second half of 2014.

Loans and advances at the end of December stood at SAR220.72 billion, gaining 17.6 per cent on the same point of 2013, while deposits rose 10.8 per cent to SAR333.1 billion over the same period.