DUBAI: Al-Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia's largest listed lender, posted a small rise in fourth-quarter net profit yesterday, coming in slightly below the average forecast of analysts.
The bank made SR1.91 billion in the three months ended December, compared with SR1.90 billion in the same period the year earlier, the bank said in a bourse filing, equivalent to a 0.6 percent rise year-on-year.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters expected the bank to post SR1.96 billion for the fourth quarter.
Al Rajhi attributed the rise in quarterly profit to higher operating income, which rose 5 percent on the same three-month period of 2011 to SR3.49 billion.
Full-year profit for 2012 was recorded as SR7.89 billion, a 7 percent increase on 2011's SR7.38 billion.
Total lending at the end of 2012 stood at SR172 billion, a 23 percent jump on the same point of 2011, while deposits rose 24 percent over the same timeframe to SR221 billion.
Saudi banks have enjoyed successive years of expansionary government budgets, ample liquidity and improving corporate loan demand.
In a separate bourse statement, Al-Rajhi said it would pay a cash dividend of SR2 per share for the second half of 2012, which represents 20 percent of a share's nominal value.
Al-Rajhi reports SR1.91bn profit
