RIYADH, 20 January 2005 — The National Commercial Bank (NCB) has achieved net profit totaling SR3.531 billion in 2004, an increase of SR518 million over the net profit of 2003, Chairman and Managing Director of NCB, Sheikh Abdalla Bahamdan announced.

During its most recent meeting, the board recommended not paying a dividend for the second half of 2004 in order to further build up shareholders’ equity, which totaled SR13.775 billion at the end of 2004. The measure was taken to support the continued growth and expansion of NCB, which will enable the bank to better serve the rapidly growing Saudi community not only in the core banking activities, but also in new emerging activities such as insurance and capital markets.

The bank continued to maintain its high profitability ratios as the return on average assets (ROA) increased to 2.8 percent, the return on average equity (ROE) was 29.3 percent, while earnings per share (EPS) improved to SR29.4.

NCB’s chairman elaborated further on the financial results stating that income from core operations (operating income adjusted for gains on investments and dividend income) grew to SR5.918 billion compared to SR5.021 billion in 2003, an increase of 17.9 percent.

Customer deposits grew to SR98.752 billion, an increase of 9.2 percent over 2003, while net loans and advances reached SR63.513 billion, a 27.7 percent increase over their level in 2003.

Commenting on the bank’s achievements in 2004, Abdalla Bahamdan noted that NCB’s strong and consistent performance has led to the rise of its credit rating. NCB’s financial strength rating was elevated two notches to “A” from “BBB+” by Capital Intelligence, one of the leading international rating agencies that specializes in emerging market economies.

Moreover, NCB’s long-term foreign currency rating was elevated to “A” and it short-term foreign currency rating was elevated to “A 1”.

NCB’s chairman concluded: “The foundation of these excellent results is the strong level of trust that NCB has earned from its customers, and the quality, and variety of the bank’s products and services, in addition to the hard work and improved performance of the NCB’s management and staff”.

The chairman expressed his deep gratitude to the bank’s clients, shareholders and affiliates for their continued support to NCB.