MANAMA, 7 March 2005 — Bahraini Saudi Bank (BSB) has announced a growth of 25.4 percent in its net profit for 2004. The announcement was made at the bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was held on March 3 under the chairmanship of Fahad Mohammed AI-Athel, chairman of the board of directors. The shareholders of the bank were told that the bank had made a net profit of BD1.88 million ($4.99 million) in 2004. Operating expenses were strictly controlled, which resulted in a direct saving of BD0.27 million, a reduction of 8.6 percent. This substantially improved the bank’s cost to income ratio, which stood at 58.2 percent in 2004 compared to 66.0 percent in 2003.