Ahli United Bank (AUB), Bahrain's largest lender, posted a 5 per cent increase in first-quarter net attributable profit on Wednesday.

The bank's net attributable profit for the three months to March 31 was $154.6 million. This compares with $147.2 million in the corresponding period of 2015, it said in a bourse statement.

SICO Bahrain had forecast the bank would make a first-quarter profit of $151.9 million.

Quarterly net interest income was to $201.3 million, up 5.5 per cent on the same period of last year.

Hamad Al-Humaidhi, AUB chairman, said: “AUB continued its strong and steady performance in Q1/2016 underpinned by the viability of the Bank’s core regional business model based on diversification and cross border flows.”

“In March 2016, the Bank succeeded in expanding its geographic reach further by opening its fully owned subsidiary Ahli United Bank Limited (AUBL) in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), UAE. AUBL is the first bank in the GCC region to receive the Category 1 License from Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

“This launch enables AUB to offer corporate banking, private banking, wealth management, trade finance, treasury and cross-border financial products and services to its clients based in the UAE as well as in the wider Middle East region.  All these products and services are available on a conventional as well as a Shari’a compliant basis through AUBL. The launch of AUBL represents an important addition to the AUB group banks and a key step forward in pursuing its defined strategy of targeted regional expansion, with emphasis on increasing cross border business flows,” added Al-Humaidhi. - TradeArabia News Service & Reuters