DUBAI: Saudi Hollandi Bank and Saudi British Bank (SABB) beat estimates for first-quarter net profit, with both lenders attributing the growth in earnings to higher operating income.
SABB, Saudi Arabia’s fourth-largest listed bank, said its first quarter net profit rose 11 percent over last year to SR948m ($252.8m) from SR854m, a bourse filing said yesterday. This exceeded the average forecast of nine analysts polled by Reuters for a net profit of SR847.3m.
Meanwhile, Saudi Hollandi, the kingdom’s eighth-largest listed bank, said its first quarter net profit rose 19.4 percent over last year to SR346.3m in the first three months of 2013, compared with net profit of SR290m in the first quarter of 2012, a separate filing said. Five analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast Saudi Hollandi to earn net profit of SR315m in the quarter.
Both banks attributed the profit increase to more operating income, which increased year-on-year by 16.4 and 8.1 percent at SABB and Saudi Hollandi respectively.
Reuters
