The Saudi Investment Bank announced that by the end of the Third Quarter of the current year, it has achieved net profits of 776.5 Million compared with SR 435.9 Million for the corresponding period last year, with an increase of 78%.
The net income from commissions for the current period rose to SR 577.4 Million with an increase of 33.8% over the same period last year. Other income for this period, representing fees from banking services and profits from the investment portfolio and gains from the sale of investments, witnessed substantial growth reaching SR 505.3 Million compared with SR 328.6 Million, with an increase of 53.8%, over what was achieved during the same period a year earlier.
On the expenses side, the Bank continued to apply its policy of setting aside additional sufficient provisions in order to expand its lending activities. A provision of SR 75 Million has been made to raise the loan loss provisions balance to reach SR 664.6 Million although the non-performing loans balance did not exceed SR 189 Million.
The Balance Sheet highlighted substantial growth in the Bank's total assets at the Quarter’s end which increased by SR 10,382 Million reaching to SR 36,214 Million, with an increase of 40.2% compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, the Bank’s investment portfolio and loans portfolio grew to SR 11,125 Million (up 26.7%) and SR 19,151 Million (up 65.9%) respectively.
On the liabilities side, customers' deposits in the Bank increased by SR 6,900 Million, reaching SR 24,797 Million, with an increase of 38.6% over the balance for the same period in the last year.
The Bank also continued to maintain its distinguished efficiency ratio of 21.36% which is considered the best among the Saudi Banks. The above positive results are reflected positively on the return on the average shareholders’ equity which rose to 24.61% compared with 19.77% last year, and the return on the average assets that reached 3.21% from 2.45% last year.
Dr. Abdul Aziz Al- Abdullah Al Ohali, and members of the Board of Directors, expressed their happiness with these positive results which were achieved by the Bank and its substantial business growth, stressing at the same time that the Bank is pursuing a clear and well studied path of development and expansion through which it has acquired a prominent place among the financial institutions in the region contributed in this great success by a national qualified and specialized team of young Saudi cadres the Bank’s management and shareholders are proud of.
Mr. Saud Saleh Al Saleh, the General Manager of the Bank, said that the Bank had been able to achieve great success on different levels, as it has increased its business in the retail sector and introduced new credit and investment products. In the Third Quarter of this year, SAIB announced the launch of the Opportunities-IPO Closed Fund which joint the other successful investment funds launched by SAIB over the last two years and which have achieved returns beyond expectations. SAIB is at present managing the largest GCC equity fund in the region which has achieved returns of more than 126.55% since its inception on 24/7/2004 and 77.48% returns during the last nine months. He added that the IPO Fund comes as part of the Bank’s plan to utilize its expertise in providing the opportunity for an important sector of investors to benefit from medium and long term investments through IPO markets in order to achieve returns higher than those achieved in the secondary markets. The fund is the first one of its kind to be introduced in the Saudi market. Moreover, SAIB has been able to cover all markets in the neighboring GCC and Arab countries to provide instant brokerage services to its customers. Furthermore, a syndicated loan agreement for US$ 380 Million was executed with a group of international, regional and local banks. The loan was arranged by Citibank, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd, Raffeisen Zentralbank of Austria, Standard Chartered Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and 18 other banks. The response to this syndication was so high that the coverage ratio reached 190% , which prompted SAIB to increase the loan amount from US$ 200 Million to US$ 380 Million.
