JEDDAH, 11 April 2007 — The National Commercial Bank (NCB) registered SR1.70 billion net income in the first quarter of 2007, a decline of 8.1 percent compared to SR1.85 billion in the first quarter of 2006, Chairman Abdullah Bahamdan said yesterday.
The decline, he said, was due to the capital gains that the bank realized during the first quarter of 2006 which totaled SR268 million, adding that the net income, excluding capital gains actually increased by 6.4 percent from SR1.58 billion for the first quarter of 2006 to SR1.68 billion for the first quarter of 2007.
Total assets grew by 16.6 percent to SR167.76 billion in the period under review. Net loans and advances increased to SR78.73 billion, an increase of 6.6 percent and customer deposits reached to SR122.05 billion, an increase of 21.4 percent.
In addition, NCB’s total shareholders’ equity grew by 16.6 percent to SR25.24 billion and the ratio of equity to assets stood at a robust 15 percent, thus reinforcing the bank’s strong capital adequacy ratio.
The bank continued to maintain high profitability ratios as return on average assets (ROA) was 4.21 percent and the return on average equity (ROE) was 27.6 percent, while earnings per share (EPS) reached SR1.13.
The general assembly of shareholders at its extraordinary meeting held on March 26, approved increasing the paid-in capital from SR9 billion to SR15 billion by capitalizing SR6 billion from general reserve through the issuance of two bonus shares for every three shares.
“The foundation of these excellent results is the strong level of trust that NCB has earned from its valued customers, the bank’s broad range of products and services, and the deep commitment of the bank’s management and staff to improve service quality and to forge closer ties with our customers,” Bahamdan said.
He expressed deep gratitude to the bank’s clients, shareholders and staff for their continued support to NCB.