Saudi’s National Commercial Bank Q3 Net Income Up 7.8%

National Commercial Bank (NCB), Saudi Arabia’s largest lender by assets, posted a 7.8 per cent increase in third-quarter net income, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

NCB, which is currently undertaking the largest ever initial public offering in the Gulf Arab region, made SAR1.87 billion ($498.4 million) in the three months to September 30, up from SAR1.73 billion in the same period last year.

The bank began a two-week subscription period on Sunday for its SAR22.5 billion ($6 billion) share sale. It has also said it would convert into a fully-fledged Islamic bank in around five years, after coming under pressure from sharia scholars in the Kingdom.