Dubai's Emirates NBD Q1 net profit gains 8%

Emirates NBD (ENBD), Dubai's largest lender, posted an 8 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit on Tuesday, aided by smaller provisions for bad loans.

The first major lender in the UAE to announce its earnings said it made a net profit of Dh1.81 billion ($492.8 million) in the three months to March 31, a statement from the bank said, compared to Dh1.67bn in the corresponding period of 2015.

Analysts at EFG Hermes and Sico Bahrain had forecast the bank would make a net profit for the quarter of Dh1.87bn and Dh1.93bn, respectively.

The bank, 55.6 per cent owned by state fund Investment Corp of Dubai, has benefited from an improvement in the performance of its assets in recent quarters.

The amount of cash set aside for bad loans was Dh829m in the first quarter, down from Dh1.1bn in the same period of 2015.

A 3 per cent increase in net interest income to Dh2.56bn was also a positive for the bank and helped to offset a 16 per cent jump in operating expenses, which ENBD said was due to higher staffing costs linked with increase business volumes.

Loans and advances stood at Dh279.1bn at the end of March, up 12 per cent at the same point last year.   Deposits rose by the same percentage year-on-year, to Dh290.9bn.

Bank sheds about 300 jobs from two units

Emirates NBD has laid off around 300 people in recent weeks at two subsidiaries, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The bank made around 100 people redundant from Emirates Money as part of a move to merge the small business finance provider with Emirates NBD's operations to save costs, the spokesman told Reuters.

Emirates Islamic (EI), the group's Sharia-compliant unit, also shed around 200 people, the spokesman said.

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