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Saudi Arabia’s Riyad Bank Q2 Profit Beats Forecasts | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Riyadh (Reuters) – Riyad Bank, Saudi Arabia’s sixth-largest lender by market value, beat analysts forecasts with a second-quarter net profit of 848 million riyals

($226.1 million), up 24.3 percent from the year-earlier period.

Analysts forecasts for Riyad Bank’s second quarter profit ranged from 595.82 million riyals to 714.50 million riyals, according to a Reuters survey last month.[nL30347398]

“The growth in profit is due to growth in the core banking activities,” Chairman Rashed Abdul-Aziz al-Rashed said in the statement.

Many Saudi banks reported sharply lower first-quarter profit as their income from stock market-related business such as brokerage dwindled after the largest Arab bourse lost more than half its value last year.

Riyad Bank’s operating income in the three months ending in June 30 rose 21.2 percent to 1.37 billion riyals, the bank said in a statement.

Earnings per share were 2.4 riyals at the end of June, down 3.6 percent from the year-earlier period.

First half net profit was 1.5 billion riyals, Riyad Bank said, compared with 1.55 billion riyals in the six months ending June 30, 2006.

The bank had of 98.44 billion riyals at the end of June, an increase of 6.5 percent from the year-earlier period.