Tuesday, Jul 26, 2011
BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Blom Bank, Lebanon's second largest lender in terms of assets, said first-half net profit rose 4.6% to $163.6 million compared with the year earlier period.
"Despite a difficult operating environment for the bank in Lebanon and in some of its entities in the region, this solid performance in relative and absolute profitability attests to the success of the bank's strategy of firm control over banking risks and expenses," the lender said in a statement late Monday. Total assets stood at $23.11 billion at the end of June, up $1.6 billion, or 7.4%, from a year earlier.
"Customer deposits increased to $20.45 billion, higher by 9.6% or $1.8 billion; and loans and advances climbed to $5.6 billion, increasing by 20% or $917 million," the bank said.
-By Shikrallah Nakhoul, Zawya Dow Jones, +961 1 985757, shikrallah@zawya.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
26-07-11 0527GMT
