"We are still taking very large provisions but not
as large as they were last year ... and the core operating business has
improved," Michel Accad told Reuters. Net profit in the three
months to June 30 was 8.5 million dinars ($31.1 million), compared to
1.4 million dinars in the same period last year, the lender said in a
statement on the Kuwaiti bourse website.Net income in the first half
of the year was 18.3 million dinars, up from 1.98 million dinars in the
year earlier period the bank said. Gulf Bank booked about 37
million dinars of provisions in the first half of this year, compared to
80 million dinars last year, Accad said."These provisions are
mostly general and precautionary, because we are not very optimistic
about the situation in general," he added without elaborating.The
bank which was rescued by the Kuwait's central bank in 2008, has been
steadily recovering from its crisis, when it faced big losses related to
derivatives. Its chairman said earlier this year that it had covered
all residual losses stemming from 2008.Gulf Bank's shareholder
equity came in at 428.5 million dinars in the first half of 2011, up
from 391.2 million dinars in the year-earlier period.The lender's shares were down 2 percent on the Kuwaiti bourse on Thursday. The results were released after the market closed.
