Lebanon’s Byblos Bank reported a $22.60 million net income for the first half of 2002, down 5.8 percent compared with figures from last year.
The bank attributed the drop to high capital gains of $4.1 million in 2001, booked on the sale of 34 percent of the shares of its insurance subsidiary ADIR. The exclusion of these gains would have resulted in a 13.4 percent rise in net income.
The bank’s total assets grew by 6.4 percent to reach $4.52 billion in the first half of the year, while deposits rose by 9.76 percent to reach $3.7 billion. Customer deposits totaled $3.6 billion, a 9.76 percent rise compared to the first half of 2001 while loans increased by 3.3 percent to one billion dollars during the same period.
Byblos Bank is the third largest commercial banking institution in Lebanon and the largest in consumer banking. It has a paid-up share capital of LP 245.8 billion ($161.8 million), consisting of 205 million shares valued at LP 1,200 each. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
