Reuters – Lebanon’s Bank Audi reported first-quarter net profit of $85.8m on Sunday, the same level as in the same period a year before.
The bank said in a statement its net profit was driven by 12.2% growth in total income but that it had put aside $20.1m of net loan loss provisions.
War in neighbouring Syria has spilled over into Lebanon and contributed to a sharp slowdown in the Lebanese economy over the last three years.
Last year the bank’s Q1 net profit dropped by 9.5% to $85.5m weighed down by the costs of launching the Turkish subsidiary Odeabank.
The bank said its customer deposits grew by $1.2bn to $32.3bn from $31.1bn at the end of December 2013, driven mainly by the Turkish subsidiary which registered a deposits growth of $1,178m, and in Egypt. Its consolidated assets grew by $1.6bn from December to reach $37.8bn end of March.
“In parallel, assets of entities abroad reached $16.9bn, corresponding to a share of 45% in consolidated assets,” it said.
