Saudi’s National Commercial Bank third quarter net profit rises 6.7%

Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom’s largest bank by assets, reported a 6.7 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit on Sunday, missing analyst forecasts. The lender made a net profit of 1.99 billion riyals (Dh1.94 billion, $530.62 million) in the three months to September 30, up from 1.87 billion riyals in the same period of 2014, it said in a bourse statement. Analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast NCB would make a quarterly profit of 2.23 billion riyals. The lender listed on the Riyadh bourse in November 2014 after the largest-ever initial public offer of shares in the Arab world.