Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank reported a 32 per cent jump in quarterly net profit on Wednesday, beating analysts' expectations, as the bank made fewer provisions and non-interest income grew.

The UAE’s third largest lender by market value posted fourth quarter net profit of 680 million dirhams ($185.1 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, up from 514 million dirhams in the prior-year period, according to a bourse filing.

Six analysts had estimated average profit of 508.8 million dirhams, in a Reuters poll.

Full-year profit for 2012 stood at 2.8 billion dirhams, down 8 percent from 3.045 billion dirhams in 2011.

ADCB's 2011 profit was boosted by a one-off gain of 1.31 billion dirhams after the sale of a stake in Malaysia's RHB Capital.

Impairment allowances for the fourth quarter totalled 402 million dirhams, ADCB said, down 27 percent from 548 million dirhams for same period in 2011. This took provisioning for all of 2012 to 1.71 billion dirhams, down 29 percent.

ADCB, nearly 60-percent owned by the Abu Dhabi government, saw a 32-percent year-on-year growth in non-interest income in the fourth quarter, earning 312 million dirhams last year compared to 237 million dirhams in 2011.

Total loans dropped 1 percent during 2012, with flat loan growth reported for the final three months of the year. Deposit growth was flat, both for the fourth quarter and the whole year.

ADCB's lending growth will remain muted at 2-3 percent in 2012 as the bank looks at deleveraging its balance sheet owing to the lack of lending opportunities and a focus on better quality loans, SICO said in a research note published June 21.

The bank's board has proposed a 25-percent cash dividend for 2012, the statement said.

In November, ADCB and Europe's largest lender by market capitalisation, Banco Santander, signed a partnership agreement to cooperate in trade and project finance as the Spanish bank broadens its reach in the Gulf.

ADCB is expected to launch a bond offering shortly after picking itself, J.P. Morgan Chase, ING, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered to arrange the offering, sources told Reuters earlier this week. – Reuters