Thursday, Apr 11, 2013
(This story was originally published Wednesday.)
RIYADH (Zawya Dow Jones)--Samba Financial Group (1090.SA), Saudi Arabia's second-largest listed bank by market value, said net profit in the first quarter of the year rose 1.2% on the year, beating most analyst forecasts.
Net income in the three months ended March 31 amounted to 1.16 billion Saudi riyals ($309 million), up from SAR1.15 billion in the year ago period, the lender said in a statement posted on the Tadawul market website on Wednesday.
The quarterly effort beat the SAR1.05 billion effort that analysts at EFG Hermes had penciled in and was also better than the SAR1.07 billion that NCB Capital analysts had expected.
Total operating income for the first quarter was SAR1.9 billion, up from SAR1.8 billion in the same period in 2012, Samba said. Earnings per share meanwhile amounted to SAR1.29, compared with SAR1.27, while loans and advances stood at SAR107 billion at the end of March, up 15% from a year ago.
Samba shares closed trading Wednesday 2% higher at SAR45.50.
Write to Ellen Knickmeyer at ellen.knickmeyer@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-04-13 0347GMT
