Abu Dhabi banks’ income up 50%

Rebounding credit allied with lower loan loss provisions to boost the net profits of Abu Dhabi’s five banks by a whopping 50 per cent in 2011.

Their balance sheets, published in the Sahrjah-based Arabic language daily Alkhaleej, showed their collective net earnings soared to nearly Dh9.3 billion last year from around Dh6.2 billion in 2010.

The report showed all of them recorded sharp rise in profits but the highest growth was achieved by the government-controlled Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), which netted nearly Dhthree billion in 2011 after suffering from a loss of about Dh300 million in the previous year.

Loans by the five banks swelled by around Dh35 billion through 2011 from around Dh459.9 to Dh495 billion while deposits grew from Dh442.3 billion at the end of 2010 to nearly Dh480.6 billion at the end of 2011, according to the balance sheets.

Their combined bad debt provisions fell to around Dh4.9 billion during 2011 from nearly Dh5.1 billion as the banks continue to recover from the 2008 global financial distress and the 2009 regional debt default crises.

The report showed the combined assets of the five banks rose to a record high of around Dh753 billion at the end of 2011 from Dh678 billion at the end of 2010. The bulk of the Dh66 billion increase was achieved by the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), whose assets surged by Dh44 billion.

Besides ADCB and NBAD, Abu Dhabi’s banks include Union National Bank, First Gulf Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.

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