Dubai Islamic Bank’s Q4 Profit Up 33.9%, Beats Estimates

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the largest sharia-compliant lender in the emirate, posted a 33.9 per cent rise in its fourth-quarter net profit on Monday, beating analysts’ forecasts.

DIB made a net profit of Dhs1.19 billion in 2012, it said in a statement, a 13 per cent increase on 2011.

The bank made Dhs336 million ($91.5 million) in the three months to December 31, Reuters calculated based on previous financial statements, up from Dhs251 million in the corresponding period last year.

Two analysts polled by Reuters expected a net profit of Dhs148 million and Dhs219 million respectively.

“The bank saw healthy growth across a number of key areas, from our asset and deposit bases through to our net profit,” Mohammed al-Shaibani, chairman of DIB, said.

Provisioning for bad loans in 2012, at Dhs1.04 billion, was marginally down from 2011’s Dhs1.09 billion. However, its ratio of non-performing loans dipped to 9.8 per cent at the end of the year against 12.1 per cent on Dec. 31 2011.

Customer deposits stood at Dhs66.8 billion at the end of December, up 2.9 per cent on the end of 2011 but marginally lower than the Dhs66.9 billion figure held at the end of the third quarter of 2012.

Total assets increased 5.3 per cent in 2012 to Dhs95.4 billion.

DIB’s board proposed a cash dividend of 15 per cent for 2012, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, the statement added. That was up from 12.5 per cent in 2011.

DIB said at the beginning of January that it would look to fully acquire sharia-compliant mortgage lender Tamweel through a share swap, subject to shareholder approvals.

DIB already owns 58.2 per cent of the firm and will offer other shareholders 10 DIB shares for every 18 Tamweel shares they own.

In December, Moody’s placed DIB on review for possible downgrade, citing concerns over asset quality, loan loss coverage and the bank’s relatively weak capital base.

Shares in DIB closed up 0.9 per cent on Monday, in line with the wider market.