DUBAI - Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), the Gulf state's largest sharia-compliant lender by assets, beat the average forecast of analysts as it reported a 14.8 percent jump in second-quarter net profit on Sunday, according to Reuters calculations.
It made a net profit of 700.1 million riyals ($192.3 million) during the three months to June 30, compared with 609.7 million riyals in the same period a year earlier, Reuters calculated from financial statements in the absence of a quarterly earnings breakdown.
Three analysts polled by Reuters had forecast on average the bank to make a quarterly net profit of 619.0 million riyals. The bank is the second major Qatari lender to report earnings this quarter after Qatar National Bank, which reported a 6.3 percent gain in second-quarter profit. Qatari lenders have for the most part weathered a crisis that erupted on June 5 last year when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed economic sanctions on the country.
Since then some foreign banks have scaled back new business with Qatar, while Qatar Investment Authority has also placed deposits with some local banks to help ease liquidity in the domestic banking sector.
Qatar Islamic Bank, considered one of the banks most vulnerable to the sanctions at the start of the crisis, said its total customer deposits rose by 2 percent in the six months to the end of June, compared to the same period of last year.
($1 = 3.6400 Qatar riyals)
(Reporting By Tom Arnold; Editing by Toby Chopra) ((Tom.Arnold@thomsonreuters.com; +97144536265; Reuters Messaging: tom.arnold.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
