Business | Banking
Saudi Arabian bank profits fall 14.5%
Four major lenders suffer more than 50 per cent decline in 2007 and seven report growth in fourth quarter.
- By Mariam Al Hakeem, Correspondent
- Published: 00:22 January 29, 2008
Riyadh: Profits of Saudi banks declined by 14.5 per cent in 2007. Eleven banks realised net profits of 30.21 billion Saudi riyals compared to 35.34 billion Saudi riyals in the previous year.
The profits of banks in 2006 increased by 31.2 per cent over 2005.
Four banks - Al Jazira, the Saudi Investment Bank, Al Saudi Al Hollandi and Al Bilad reported a decline of more than 50 per cent in profits in 2007.
In 2006, these banks reported major profit increases except Saudi Hollandi Bank. Al Jazira bank, Saudi Investments Bank and Al Bilad reported an increase of 125 per cent, 88.5 per cent and 281 per cent in profit respectively. The Saudi Hollandi reported a decline of 9.4 per cent in 2006.
The profits of the ten banks listed on the Saudi stock exchange have declined by 16.8 per cent in 2007. The profits of these banks amounted to 24.1 billion Saudi riyals compared to 29 billion Saudi riyals in 2006. Riyad Bank is the only Saudi bank that reported an increase in its profits in 2007. The bank's profits reached 3.01 billion riyals an increase of 3.5 per cent.
Al Jazira, the Saudi Investment Bank and Al-Bilad reported profits of 805 million riyals, 822.5 million riyals and 72.5 million riyals respectively.
Meanwhile, seven banks listed on the Saudi stock exchange have reported net profits in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Four of them reported an increase in profits while profits of the other three fell compared to the same period in 2006. Riyad bank, Al Bank Al Saudi Al Faransi (The Saudi French bank), the Saudi British Bank (SABB) and the Saudi American Bank (Samba) reported a profit increase of 12.8 per cent, 10 per cent, 20.5 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively.
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