Dubai’s Emirates NBD Q2 net profit rises 26%

Emirates NBD (ENBD), Dubai’s largest lender, posted a 26 percent rise in second-quarter net profit on Wednesday, slightly missing analysts’ forecasts, helped by rises in income from loans and fees and smaller impairment charges.

The lender, 55.6-percent owned by state fund Investment Corp of Dubai, made a profit of Dhs1.65bn ($449m) in the three months to June 30, compared to Dhs1.31bn in the same period of 2014, according to Reuters calculations.

ENBD didn’t provide a quarterly breakdown in its first-half results filing, so Reuters calculated figures for the three months using previous financial statements.

An average of six analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a net profit of Dhs1.69bn for the second quarter.

ENBD has benefited from robust growth in Dubai, where a diversified economy has helped cushion the fallout from weak oil markets. Still, business activity expansion in the United Arab Emirates’ non-oil private sector slowed to a 22-month low in June, the bank’s own corporate survey showed.

For the first half of 2015, ENBD reported a net profit of Dhs3.32bn, up 41 per cent from a year earlier, it said in a statement.

The bank was helped by a 9 per cent rise in net interest income during the first half of the year to Dhs4.9bn. Loan growth swelled by 6 per cent over the same period to Dhs256.2bn at the end of June 30.

The bank has been helped by an easing of its debt woes, including the reclassification last year of its Dubai World debt as performing.

Impairment allowances reached Dhs1.99bn during the six months to the end of June, an improvement of 24 per cent from the same period of last year.