UAE lender UNB Q3 net rises 7.3 percent

UAE lender UNB Q3 net rises 7.3 percent

Union National Bank posted a 7.3 percent increase in third-quarter net profit on Thursday, helped by a surge in net interest income, beating analysts' forecasts.

October 27, 2011 2:11 by Reuters

Abu Dhabi-based lender UNB made a net profit of 493.8 million dirhams ($134.6 million) in the three months to Sept. 30, up from 460 million dirhams in the same period last year, it said in a bourse statement.

Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected profit of 413.7 million dirhams.

Net interest income surged 31 percent to 562 million dirhams compared with 429.2 million dirhams year-ago. However, impairment losses on financial assets booked in third quarter totalled 81.2 million dirhams versus 59.2 million in the same period last year.

“The highlights during the quarter were further enhancement of already strong capitalisation levels, liquidity optimisation and satisfactory asset quality and loan loss coverage,” Mohamed Nasr Abdeen, UNB’s chief executive said in the statement.

Loans and advances grew to 55.7 billion dirhams ending September, up 2.5 percent compared to the same period last year. Deposits fell 0.7 percent to 52.5 billion dirhams ending September 2011 versus 52.8 billion over a year ago.

Shares in UNB, owned by the governments of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, rose 1 percent on the Abu Dhabi bourse at 0645 GMT. (Reporting by Stanley Carvalho, Editing by Dinesh Nair)