QNB Group announced a net profit of QR7.1 billion ($2 billion) in the nine months ended Sept. 30, up by 14.1 percent compared to the same period last year.
The results include the financial results of NSGB in Egypt.
For the nine months of 2013, the group’s prudent cost control policy and strong revenue generating capability allowed it to maintain an efficiency ratio (cost to income ratio) of 20.4 percent.
Total assets increased by 24.5 percent from September 2012 to reach QR437 billion ($120 billion), the highest ever achieved by the group, according to a statement from the Qatar-based bank.
This was the result of a strong growth rate of 27.4 percent in loans and advances to reach QR304 billion ($83.5 billion).
The group was able to maintain the ratio of non-performing loans to gross loans at 1.6 percent, a level considered one of the lowest among banks in the Middle East and Africa, reflecting the high quality of the group’s loan book and the effective management of credit risk.
The group’s conservative policy in regard to provisioning continued with the coverage ratio reaching 119 percent in September 2013.
At the same time, QNB Group increased customer funding by 23.3 percent to QR331 billion ($91.0 billion). This led to the group’s loan to deposit ratio to reach 92 percent.
Total Equity increased by 10.5 percent from September 2012 to reach QR51 billion ($14 billion) as at Sept. 30. Earnings per share reached QR10.2 ($2.8) compared to QR8.9 in September 2012.
QNB Group tops the list in the Bloomberg Markets magazine’s annual ranking of the World’s Strongest Banks. 2012 was the first time that QNB was included in the list of eligible banks (78 banks were eligible globally) as a result of achieving more than $100 billion of assets.
