ABC Islamic Bank, a subsidiary of Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation, has registered a 75 per cent jump in its net profit for the third quarter which hit $2.8 million compared to $1.6 million last year.

Announcing the results on Wednesday, ABC Islamic said the bank's net profit for the first nine months were flat at $6.8 million compared to $6.7 million last year. The bank saw its third quarter profit grow 15 per cent over its last quarter.

The Bahraini bank said its total operating income rose to $4.3 million from $4 million in the last quarter. Operating expenses were kept nearly flat at $1.4 million, it added.

Shareholders’ equity as of September 30, 2012 stood at $234.6 million, compared to $231.8 million at the end of the second quarter. The bank’s capital base remains very strong with a capital adequacy ratio of 25.9 per cent, predominantly Tier 1, which totalled 25.2 per cent.

ABC Islamic Bank’s total assets stood at $1.123 billion at 30 September 2012 compared to $1.047 billion at the end of the second quarter.

Commenting on the results, Naveed Khan, the managing director of ABC Islamic Bank said, "We are pleased to see that our resumption of growth coincides with an uptick in economic activity across our target markets and the region confirmed by higher loan demand from customer segments."

"We are also pleased that the growth in results has come mostly from core earnings this year. New transactions undertaken have led to overall higher margin income while regional distribution of assets originated in non-presence countries has contributed healthy fee income," he noted.

"We are cautiously optimistic that this momentum will feed through into the next quarter as well and beyond into the year ahead," he added.-TradeArabia News Service