Saudi's Riyad Bank sees profits rising in 2012

Riyad Bank, Saudi Arabia’s third-largest lender by market value, anticipates that 2012 profit will increase as much as last year, boosted by government spending, senior vice president Hisham al-Abdali said on Tuesday.

“Net income this year may grow around the same figure of last year and lending may accelerate 10 to 13 percent,” al-Abdali said in an interview in Riyadh. “This year will be good, even better, thanks to the record budget.”

Saudi Arabian banks are benefiting from a pick-up in lending as the Arab world’s biggest economy invests in infrastructure and industrial projects.

Lending to private enterprises climbed 11 percent to SR858.4bn ($229bn) at the end of last year from SR775.8bn in December 2010, according to central bank data.

The government forecast a budget surplus of SR12bn this year after King Abdullah announced a $130bn spending plan in 2011 to build homes and reduce unemployment.

Riyad Bank’s net income rose 11 percent last year to SR3.15bn from 2010, according to data on Bloomberg.

The Riyadh-based bank’s outstanding loans to small-and- medium businesses may climb 30 percent to 50 percent this year, from 1.5 billion riyals at the end of December, said al-Abdali, who is also the bank’s commercial banking manager. The lender’s market share in SME lending rose to 30 percent last year from 25 percent a year earlier, he said.

Riyad Bank’s shares closed 0.4 percent higher at 24 riyals in Riyadh on Tuesday.