Al Baraka Islamic Bank, a subsidiary of Al Baraka Banking Group, earned net income of BD1.36 million ($3.6 million) during the first nine months of the year compared with BD388,000 during the same period last year, an increase of 249 per cent.

This reflects a substantial improvement in the total income of the bank, which amounted to BD12.09 million compared with BD8.25 million last time, an increase of 46.54pc.

Total assets have increased by 7.49pc to BD545.7 million since the year-end as a result of growth in the bank's business in Bahrain and Pakistan, which in turn was reflected positively on all key items of the balance sheet.

"We are delighted to see continuing improvement in the performance of Al Baraka Islamic Bank this year, which was a truly difficult one as unfavourable global and regional economic and financial conditions continue," said chairman Khalid Rashid Al Zayani.

"These results were achieved by the outstanding efforts made by the bank in expanding its activities and business at all levels.

"The steady improvement in the performance of the Bahraini and Pakistani economies helped the bank's efforts in expanding its business and improving its financial results," he said.

"The bank has continued during the past months to implement a series of initiatives that had clear positive effects on the bank's performance during the first nine months of 2011," said Al Baraka Banking Group president and chief executive Adnan Ahmed Yousif.

"The conversion of the bank's branches in Pakistan to an independent Islamic commercial bank following the merger with Emirates Global Islamic Bank in Pakistan and our hard work to turnaround these branches to profitability had an evident positive effect on the operations of Al Baraka Islamic Bank.

"As a result of the merger and thanks to the bank's long experience in this market Al Baraka Islamic Bank was able to continue to expand and grow its operations in Pakistan in spite of the difficult economic conditions prevailing there," he said.

"In Bahrain, we continued our concerted efforts to launch new products and services, open more branches, strengthen our capital resources and continue to build the human and technical resources of the bank.

"All these factors had helped in achieving the good results of the bank during the first nine months of 2011," he said. - TradeArabia News Service