Kuwait Finance House, the country's leading Islamic bank, said Thursday its net profit in the first quarter of 2012 dropped 11.3 per cent compared to the same period last year. KFH posted a net profit of 20.1 million dinars (Dh265 million) in the first three months of this year compared to 22.6 million dinars in the same quarter of 2011, the bank said in a statement on the bourse's website. The drop in the first quarter profit came despite increases in assets and shareholders' equity. KFH said its assets as on March 31 increased 11.2 per cent to $51 billion (Dh187 billion) from $45.9 billion a year ago and its shareholders' equity rose marginally to $4.57 billion from $4.53 billion a year ago.

Emirates NBD

Gary Dugan, the chief investment officer of Emirates NBD's private banking arm has resigned to join Royal Bank of Scotland unit Coutts in Singapore, two sources familiar with the matter said. Dugan was brought in by Dubai's largest bank in 2009 to beef up its private banking business. Under his leadership, ENBD took up new initiatives like setting up an investment fund to tap into the art market with the Fine Art Fund Group. He previously worked at the wealth management arms of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays. Emirates NBD declined to comment. The sources did not want to be identified as the matter has not been made public.

Palm Hills

Egypt has lifted an asset freeze order on Palm Hills Developments SAE shareholder Yasseen Mansour, according to a statement released by the Egyptian Exchange Thursday. Mansour had his assets frozen after last year's uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

EFG Hermes

Egypt's EFG Hermes yesterday said that Qatar's QInvest may hold a majority stake in the new investment bank both financial groups are seeking to create. "Knowing that the negotiations are ongoing in the context of establishing an entity in which QInvest may own the majority share, seeking to establish the largest investment bank in the Arab world, Africa, Turkey, South and Southeast Asia," EFG said in a statement. Both banks said last month they are in talks to create what could become one of the Middle East's largest investment banks with a wide geographical basis stretching across the Middle East and beyond.

ADCB

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank priced a 310 million Malaysian ringgit (Dh371 million) bond Thursday, its third such sale in two years, as the emirate's third-largest lender by market value seeks diversified funding means. The five-year deal carries a coupon of 4.30 per cent, and Standard Chartered acted as sole bookrunner, IFR Markets, a Thomson Reuters unit reported. ADCB issued its first ringgit bond two years ago. That bond, maturing in 2015, carried a coupon of 5.2 percent.

Orascom Construction

Iraq's electricity ministry signed a $363 million power deal with Egypt's Orascom Construction to build a 1,014 megawatt gas power plant in northern Iraq, it said Thursday. The contract involves building a plant in Baiji, 180km north of Baghdad, to install six gas units, each with a capacity of 169 MW, which Iraq bought from Siemens in 2008. The project is expected to be completed within 21 months, officials have said. Nearly nine years since the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, Iraq's national grid still supplies only a few hours of power each day. Intermittent electricity is one of the public's top complaints.

Saudi Kayan

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical, an affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Co, better known as Sabic, said on Wednesday it plans a preliminary study for a polyethylene factory at its complex in Jubail Industrial City. The factory, which would use raw material from Sabic's ethylene olefins plant, is part of an effort to increase operational efficiency and maximise use of internal resources, the company said in a statement posted on the Saudi market website.