Samba Financial Group, Saudi Arabia's second largest lender by market value, said its net profit inched up 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter, but was still below the most conservative of analysts' forecasts.

Samba made 835 million riyals ($222.7 million) in the three months to December 31, up from 826 million riyals a year earlier, the bank said in a statement on the bourse website.

Analysts' forecasts of the bank's fourth-quarter earnings ranged from 905 million to 1.32 billion riyals, according to a Reuters survey this month. - Reuters