Saudi British Bank (SABB), an associated company of the HSBC Group, has registered a net profit of SR948 million ($252.7 million) for the first quarter, up 11 per cent compared to SR854 million last year.

The Saudi bank posted an increase of SR94 million in its first quarter profit for the year.

The lender posted a 16.2 per cent jump in its profit compared to the last quarter's profit of SR815 million, thus registering an increase of SR133 million.

SABB's operating income grew 16.4 per cent to hit SR1.43 billion for the quarter thus netting an increase of SR203 million compared to SR1.23 billion last year.

The bank's customer deposits also registered solid growth to hit SR122.1 billion for the quarter, thus posting an increase of 9.4 per cent (or SR10.5 billion) compared to SR111.6 billion last year.

The loans and advances to customers surged 11 per cent to hit SR101.2 billion compared to SR91.2 billion in 2012. The bank’s investment portfolio totalled SR32.4 billion, ths posting an increase of 37.4 per cent compared to SR23.6 billion last year.

Commenting on the results, chairman Sheikh Khaled Olayan said, "SABB's strategy of diversifying its income streams, effective cost control and ongoing emphasis on booking quality business at acceptable margins while maintaining strong capital and liquidity ratios has enabled the bank to record a good financial performance for the quarter ended March 31.”

The Saudi lender's total assets ballooned to SR158.8 billion, up 10.2 per cent compared to SR144 billion last year. The bank's earning per share stood at SR0.95 against SR0.85 for the corresponding quarter of the previous year, he added.-TradeArabia News Service