ABU DHABI, 17 October 2006 — Abu Dhabi headquartered First Gulf Bank, one of the largest banks in the UAE, has announced outstanding financial results for the first nine months of 2006, achieving AED1.14 billion in net profits, and beating the total profit delivered in the whole of the year 2005. The result is an outstanding 60 percent increase in profits compared to the same period of last year.
André Sayegh, CEO, First Gulf Bank said “FGB strategy is very clear, achieving planned consistent growth is our major financial goal. The third quarter result of AED394 million is in line with this growth momentum.
While this is obviously a very satisfying result indeed, the bank major success story relies on the fact, that we do not look at past performance only, our focus is always the future and FGB’s future is even more promising for the quarters and years ahead.
An important reason for the continued success in the years ahead is that FGB is being structured beyond traditional banking, it is becoming a full fledged financial institution who will benefit from the upside in the regional and world economies, while at the same time becoming increasingly immune to the downturns.” Sayegh added.
Diversification will continue to be an underlying ethos of the bank and will extend not only to products and services but also to its geographic footprint as we will shortly expand internationally. The business is maintaining its steady growth with total assets increasing by 37 percent to AED36.1 billion in September 2006 from AED 26.3 billion in December 2005. Loans and advances increased from AED 13.6 billion to AED 22.2 billion, and deposits rose from AED 17.3 billion to AED 23 billion for the same period.