KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) swung into a first quarter loss, after booking provisions against its loan and investment portfolios.
Net loss in the three months to March 31 came in at 1.41 million dinars ($4.86 million), compared with net profit of 3.14 million dinars a year earlier, CBK said in a statement on the bourse website on Tuesday.
CBK’s former chairman Abdulmajeed Shatti told Reuters in March that he expected the lender to post a "very slight profit" in the first quarter of 2010, better than last year’s figure.
Naser Al-Nafisi, general manager of Al Joman Center for Economic Consultancy, said he was expecting "humble results at best" because a large number of the bank’s clients are in financial trouble.
"There has been no solution for those and their number is increasing rather than decreasing," he said, adding that would call for booking more provisions.
On Monday, CBK’s board said it accepted the resignation of its new chairman Dherar al-Rabah who was chosen in April to replace Shatti.
Loss per share in the first quarter was 1.1 fils, compared with earnings per share of 2.6 fils in the year-earlier period. There are 1,000 fils to the dinar.
The bank’s total assets stood at 3.65 billion dinars at the end of the first quarter, while shareholders equity came in at 442.2 million dinars.
CBK’s shares ended flat at 910 fils on Tuesday. The results were released after the market close.
