Dubai's DIB posts 33.9% jump in Q1 net profit

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the United Arab Emirates' largest sharia-compliant lender, reported a 33.9 percent increase in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, as income from Islamic financing and investment rose and bad loan losses eased.

Beating analysts' forecasts, the bank made a net profit attributable to shareholders of 816.7 million dirhams ($222.4 million) in the three months to March 31, it said in a statement, up from 610.1 million dirhams in the corresponding period of 2014.

The results beat two analysts' estimates. EFG Hermes forecast Dubai Islamic Bank would make a quarterly net profit of 751.21 million dirhams, while HSBC forecast this would be 677 million dirhams.

Income from Islamic financing and investing transactions grew by 24.2 percent from the year earlier period, while commissions, fees and foreign exchange income grew by 18.8 percent over the same period.

The bank has also benefited in recent quarters from a drop in impairment charges, reflecting strength in the domestic economy.

That trend continued in the first quarter as impairment losses narrowed to 136 million dirhams, down by 30 percent from the same period of last year.