RIYADH, 14 April — The Saudi American Bank has announced that its profits for the first quarter ended March 31 stood at SR549 million. This represents a four percent increase over the profits for the corresponding period last year.
A press release issued by SAMBA yesterday also said that the earnings per share for the quarter were SR6.86 compared to SR6.61 for the same period last year.
The total operating income for the quarter was SR816 million.
Operating expenses were well controlled and fell overall by nine percent to SR267 million.
Excluding a major fall in provisions for credit losses, expenses rose by only 2.6 percent.
“This excellent performance reflects in part investments made by SAMBA in technology that have reduced processing costs,” it said.
SAMBA’s annualized return on average assets for the period is 2.9 percent, and the return on average equity 25.5 percent.
The bank continues to enjoy great balance sheet strength with shareholders equity of SR8.9 billion supporting total assets of SR75.5 billion.
Loans and advances upto March 31, 2002 were up 16.6 percent on last year, with continued strong growth in the consumer and small business sectors. Customer deposits increased by 1.9 percent over this time last year, contributing to a reduction in borrowing from other banks of 25 percent.
During the first quarter SAMBA launched two new Internet-based services, SAMBADirect and SAMBATadawal, that offer Internet-based trading in international and local investments respectively. SAMBA is the first and only bank to offer an electronic service for local shares, according to the press release.
These complement SAMBAonline and SAMBAAccess, that allow customers to perform a wide variety of banking transactions online.
“Overall, SAMBA remains a highly profitable and efficient bank enjoying a strong customer franchise and great balance sheet strength. These are some of the qualities that enabled SAMBA to win the Euromoney ‘Best Bank in Saudi Arabia’ award for 2001’ “, the press release added.
