Saudi’s Riyad Bank Q3 Net Profit Up 18.8%

Riyad Bank, Saudi Arabia’s third-largest lender by market value, posted a 18.8 per cent rise in its third-quarter net profit on Monday due to higher operating income and lower expenses.

The bank said it made SAR998 million ($266.1 million) in the three months ending September 30, compared with SAR840 million in the same period a year earlier.

The figure beat the average forecast of ten analysts polled by Reuters, who expected a SAR957.4 million net profit for the third quarter.

Operating income for the quarter rose by 4.3 per cent to SAR1.74 billion. No figure was given for the movement in operating expenses, although the bank said they fell.

Saudi companies issue brief earnings statements early in the reporting period before publishing more detailed filings later.

Net profit for the first nine months of 2013 was SAR2.92 billion, up 9.8 per cent from the SAR2.66 billion in the corresponding period of 2012.

The Kingdom’s second largest branch network makes Riyad Bank well placed to benefit from expected growth of mortgage lending, although its net profit in the next three to four quarters may be restrained by higher provisioning, Global Investment House said in a report in June.

Customer deposits gained 14.3 per cent from a year earlier and stood at SAR154.2 billion on September 30. Loans and advances at the end of September stood at SAR129.9 billion riyals, up 12.7 per cent on the same point of 2012.