NCB posts 22 pct Q2 net profit jump

Dubai: National Commercial Bank, which later this year is expected to list its shares in one of Saudi Arabia’s largest initial public offers, posted a 22 per cent jump in second-quarter net profit on Sunday.

The kingdom’s biggest bank by assets made 2.425 billion riyals ($647 million) in the three months to June 30, compared with 1.99 billion riyals in the corresponding period of 2013, it said in an e-mailed statement.

NCB said the growth was driven by an 8.3 per cent year-on-year increase in net special commissions income, as well as gains of 3.9 per cent and 11.2 per cent in banking and foreign exchange income respectively.

Loans and advances at the end of June stood at 206 billion riyals, climbing 15.7 per cent from a year earlier, while deposits gained 20 per cent to 346 billion riyals.

NCB is majority-owned by the state’s Public Investment Fund, which plans to sell a 15 per cent stake to the public by the end of the year in an IPO expected to be worth between 15 billion and 20 billion riyals.