National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the largest Kuwaiti bank and the highest-rated in the Middle East, reported a record net profit of USD 657 million (KD 190 million) for the first nine months of 2006 compared with USD 538 million for the same period last year, an increase of 22%.
Return on assets and return on equity also rose to 3.85% and 38.7% respectively, both demonstrating the strong earning power of NBK.
Ibrahim S. Dabdoub, CEO of NBK, said, “NBK continued to post record earnings supported by a positive economic environment that is underpinned by high oil prices and strong confidence in the region’s outlook. Rising interest rates, locally and internationally, combined with strong underlying expansion in all of our business lines, generated robust growth in operating income. We expect the economic boom in the region to continue over the medium term and support our ability to deliver outstanding results to shareholders."
Dabdoub added, "Our results reflect a consistently solid performance and growth that NBK has delivered over the years. This is a product of our fundamental strengths, strategy, and discipline in managing risks and the business at large. While our solid franchise and diversified revenue sources continue to generate balanced growth, our regional expansion initiatives and investments in people, technology, channels and systems position us to maintain our market lead and the strong momentum we have built over the past couple of years."
NBK, which has the largest domestic network in Kuwait with 55 branches, also has one of the largest international networks among Arab banks covering the major international and regional financial centers including London, Paris, Geneva, New York, Singapore, Vietnam, China (Shanghai), Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. NBK's presence in the last four markets was established recently as part of a regional expansion strategy. Commenting on this strategy, Dabdoub said: "it is intuitive for NBK to leverage its strengths in markets it knows quite well that also enjoy strong growth potential. This vision has been validated by the positive results from our new markets that have surpassed our expectations."
NBK has consistently earned the highest credit ratings in the Middle East by international agencies including Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and FitchRatings, on the basis of its healthy performance, high asset quality, conservative risk profile and strong capital base. Rating agencies also cite the strength and depth of NBK’s management and its clear strategy as fundamental strengths underlying the Bank’s superior ranking.
NBK’s total assets reached USD 24.2 billion at the end of September 2006, while its shareholders’ equity stood at USD 2.8 billion.
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
