National Bank of Abu Dhabi Q1 net profit rises 36%

ABU DHABI: Higher income from investments and fees helped National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s largest lender by market value, to a 35.5 percent jump in first-quarter net profit, the bank said.
The bank posted net profit of AED 1.41 billion ($ 384 million) in the first three months of 2013, beating the average forecast of AED 1.09 billion in a Rueters poll of analysts.
Impairment charges for the first quarter of this year were AED 322 million, up 3 percent higher on the corresponding period last year.
Non-interest income grew 70.9 percent to AED 974 million, which the bank attributed to a combination of strength in financial markets and successful hedging strategies.
Net interest income and net income from Islamic financing increased 5.3 percent against last year and net fees and commissions grew 8.9 percent to AED 414 million.
Loan growth continued to be lower than expected, the bank said, but deposits rose 9.6 percent year on year, helped by net inflows of government deposits.
The bank, which this month appointed Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s Alex Thursby to take over as new chief executive in July, added that it has now fully repaid AED 5.6 billion of finance ministry subordinated notes after repaying AED 1.5 billion in the first quarter and a further AED 1.5 billion at the start of the second quarter.