Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank profit up 5.5 per cent

DUBAI: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) , which is in merger talks with two other banks, on Sunday reported a 5.5 per cent rise in third-quarter profit, roughly in line with analyst forecasts.

ADCB made a net profit of 1.15 billion dirhams ($313.1 million) in the three months ending Sept. 30, up from 1.09 billion dirhams in the same period of last year.

Mean estimate

The mean estimate from three analysts polled by Refinitiv for the third quarter was 1.2 billion dirhams.

ADCB is in three-way merger talks with Union National Bank and Al Hilal Bank in a deal that could form a lender with $113 billion in assets.

Net interest and Islamic finance income rose to 1.80 billion dirhams, from 1.68 billion dirhams a year earlier. Customer deposits stood at 169.79 billion dirhams at the end of the quarter, up 4 percent from a year earlier.

Net loans and advances

Net loans and advances stood at 165.21 billion dirhams.

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is reshaping its economy and consolidating state-owned companies to cope with lower oil prices.

Two of Abu Dhabi’s top banks merged last year to create First Abu Dhabi Bank, with assets of $175 billion, while two of its big sovereign wealth funds were also combined.