Thursday, Feb 16, 2012
BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Kuwait's Burgan Bank (BURG.KW), a unit of Kuwait Projects Co. (Holding), or Kipco, Thursday said its 2011 net profit soared to 50.56 million Kuwaiti dinars ($181.6 million) from about KWD4.66 million in the previous year.
Full-year earnings per share surged to 35.3 Kuwaiti fils from just 3.4 fils in 2010, the lender said in a statement posted on the Kuwait bourse website.
The statement didn't give a reason for the profit jump. Its nine-month financial statements, previously posted on Zawya.com, show it had swung to a profit during that period mainly due to a sharp drop in provisions to KWD16.2 million from KWD66 million in the corresponding period of 2010.
Fourth-quarter net profit rose 11% to KWD9.17 million from KWD8.25 million a year earlier, according to Zawya Dow Jones calculations. The bank didn't disclose its fourth-quarter results.
Total assets stood at KWD4.55 billion at the end of 2011, up 9.7% from KWD4.15 billion a year earlier, Burgan said in the statement.
The bank also said its board proposed a 10 fils a share cash dividend payout and a 5-for-100 bonus share distribution for 2011.
Kipco, Kuwait's largest investment holding, is Burgan Bank's major shareholder directly and through its Bahraini unit United Gulf Bank, according to Zawya.com data.
Burgan's shares closed flat at KWD0.460 in an overall positive market Thursday.
-By Shikrallah Nakhoul, Zawya Dow Jones; +961 1 985757; shikrallah@zawya.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
16-02-12 1409GMT
