National Bank of Abu Dhabi NBAD.AD (NBAD), the Gulf emirate's biggest lender, posted a record profit in the first quarter after it boosted lending and made a gain from the sale of land.
NBAD's net income rose 45.5 percent to 875 million dirhams ($238.3 million) in the three months to March 31, compared with 601.3 dirhams a year earlier, the second-biggest bank in the United Arab Emirates said in a statement.
Annualised earnings per share of 1.81 dirhams in the quarter compared with 1.25 dirhams in the same period in 2007, the lender added.
The earnings, the highest on record according to Reuters data going back to 2004, topped the forecasts of Cairo-based investment bank EFG-Hermes and Dubai's Shuaa Capital in a Reuters net profit survey last month.
Forecasts were for quarterly profit of 659 million dirhams and 699 million dirhams respectively, according to the survey. [ID:nL31466795]
NBAD said it booked a 165 million dirham gain from the sale of land in the UAE, the second-largest Arab economy.
Loans and advances grew 51 percent to 93 billion dirhams, while customer deposits rose 29 percent to 92 billion dirhams, the bank said, without providing details of net interest income.
NBAD Chief Executive Michael Tomalin said the bank strived to achieve average growth of 20 percent this year and had benefited from a "rapidly expanding UAE marketplace during a period of serious global financial turbulence".
Gulf Arab lenders have ridden a wave of regional economic growth driven by a more than five-fold rise in oil prices in the last six years.
Operating income hit 1.29 billion dirhams, up 53 percent, while expenses climbed 46 percent to 328 million dirhams, the bank added. Total assets grew 41 percent to 157 billion dirhams.
Shares of NBAD, which is controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi, are up more than 8 percent this year, compared with more than 10 percent for the main index.
Abu Dhabi's main stock index .ADI traded around 4,600 points in the first quarter, compared with 3,000 in the year-earlier period, according to Reuters data.
Goldman Sachs this month started coverage of nine UAE lenders, making a "neutral" recommendation for NBAD stock and a price target of 27.54 dirhams [ID:nBNG157270]. The stock last traded at 20.65 dirhams. (Reuters)
NBAD's net income rose 45.5 percent to 875 million dirhams ($238.3 million) in the three months to March 31, compared with 601.3 dirhams a year earlier, the second-biggest bank in the United Arab Emirates said in a statement.
Annualised earnings per share of 1.81 dirhams in the quarter compared with 1.25 dirhams in the same period in 2007, the lender added.
The earnings, the highest on record according to Reuters data going back to 2004, topped the forecasts of Cairo-based investment bank EFG-Hermes and Dubai's Shuaa Capital in a Reuters net profit survey last month.
Forecasts were for quarterly profit of 659 million dirhams and 699 million dirhams respectively, according to the survey. [ID:nL31466795]
NBAD said it booked a 165 million dirham gain from the sale of land in the UAE, the second-largest Arab economy.
Loans and advances grew 51 percent to 93 billion dirhams, while customer deposits rose 29 percent to 92 billion dirhams, the bank said, without providing details of net interest income.
NBAD Chief Executive Michael Tomalin said the bank strived to achieve average growth of 20 percent this year and had benefited from a "rapidly expanding UAE marketplace during a period of serious global financial turbulence".
Gulf Arab lenders have ridden a wave of regional economic growth driven by a more than five-fold rise in oil prices in the last six years.
Operating income hit 1.29 billion dirhams, up 53 percent, while expenses climbed 46 percent to 328 million dirhams, the bank added. Total assets grew 41 percent to 157 billion dirhams.
Shares of NBAD, which is controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi, are up more than 8 percent this year, compared with more than 10 percent for the main index.
Abu Dhabi's main stock index .ADI traded around 4,600 points in the first quarter, compared with 3,000 in the year-earlier period, according to Reuters data.
Goldman Sachs this month started coverage of nine UAE lenders, making a "neutral" recommendation for NBAD stock and a price target of 27.54 dirhams [ID:nBNG157270]. The stock last traded at 20.65 dirhams. (Reuters)
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