Samba income falls 3.3%

dubai — Samba Financial Group, Saudi Arabia’s third-largest bank by assets, reported a 3.3 per cent drop in second-quarter net profit on Sunday, in line with analysts’ forecasts, as operating expenses rose. It is the last major Saudi bank to report earnings during what has been a generally subdued quarter. The bank made a profit of 1.27 billion riyals ($338.7 million) in the three months to June 30, down from 1.31 billion riyals in the same period a year earlier, it said in a bourse statement.

Four analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast the bank would make a quarterly net profit of 1.22 billion riyals. The bank attributed the fall in net profit to a 6.5 per cent rise in operating expenses. Operating expenses rose as a result of higher credit costs and other general and administrative expenses, it said. — Reuters