Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom’s largest lender, reported a 1 percent rise in first-quarter net profit on Tuesday, ahead of the forecasts by two analysts.
The bank made a net profit of 2.63 billion riyals ($701.5 million) in the three months to Mar. 31, up from 2.61 billion riyals in the same period of 2015, it said in a bourse statement.
SICO Bahrain forecast NCB would make a quarterly profit of 2.30 billion riyals, while Deutsche Bank expected earnings of 2.23 billion riyals for the period.
NCB attributed its earnings performance in the first quarter to a 5.5 percent increase in operating income to 4.69 billion riyals, which in turn was aided by a 9.9 percent jump to 3.34 billion riyals in income from special commissions.
Saudi companies issue brief earnings statements early in the reporting period before publishing more detailed results later.
The kingdom’s banks are feeling some fallout from a sluggishness in the kingdom’s economy as a result of lower oil prices.
Deposits at the bank, which has perhaps the closest links to the government, sank 4.9 percent year on year to 326.1 billion riyals at the end of March, continuing the decline in levels seen in the final three months of 2015.
It is in contrast to recent years when Saudi banks were able to build up significant deposits as revenues garnered by the government from high oil prices were placed with local lenders.
Loans and advances at the end of March stood at 265.34 billion riyals, up 16.8 percent on a year earlier.
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