National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the country's largest lender, reported a 13.2 per cent fall in its nine-month net profit mainly due to a one-off gain in the year-ago period, it said on Wednesday.

Net profit for the nine months to the end of September 30 was KD198.6 million ($704.6 million), compared with 228.9 million dinars a year ago, NBK said in a bourse statement.

The group’s total assets reached KD 19 billion, up 15.5 per cent as at the end of September, compared to the same period last year.

Total shareholders’ equity increased by 4 per cent year-on-year to KD2.46 billion. Loans and advances reached KD10.5 billion at the end of September, up 9.3 per cent compared to the same period last year, while customer deposits reached KD10 billion, up 16 per cent compared to last year.

No quarterly numbers were provided by the company.

The lender recognised exceptional gains of $288 million during the year-ago period on the consolidation of Boubyan Bank , it said in the statement. Excluding the gain, net profit for the period rose 34.7 per cent, NBK said.

Ibrahim Dabdoub, group CEO, said: “NBK’s profits for the period reaffirm the group’s strong position in its domestic and regional markets. Despite the challenges in the corporate domestic market and the political instability in some of the regional markets, the bank managed to deliver a strong set of results with net profits growing at 34.7 per cent year-on-year after normalising for the revaluation gains from Boubyan’s consolidation.”

“We continued to focus on core banking business across our locations. In the nine-month period up to September and excluding the exceptional gain recognized last year, NBK’s net operating income grew by 15.8 per cent year-on-year to KD 467.1 million,” Dabdoub added.
Dabdoub also confirmed that the domestic operating environment continued to improve and the overall outlook is turning more positive.

“Our expansion into Islamic banking through the acquisition of 58.4% of Boubyan Bank continues to pay off as Boubyan’s contribution to the group’s profitability and balance sheet increases over time,” Dabdoub added. - Reuters and TradeArabia News Service