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Nov. 1, 2006- Bank of Beirut (BOB) reported on Tuesday that its net profits in the third quarter of 2006 jumped to $26.6 million from $17.3 million year-on-year from 2005, an increase of 54 percent. The bank's total assets in the same period jumped 10 percent to $4.34 billion.
Customer bank deposits reached $3.03 billion, an increase of 9.2 percent. The bank said its private equity increase by 27 percent to $376 million while loans rose by 10 percent. BOB's non-performing loans fell by 38 percent. "The bank achieved these results despite the difficult economic conditions in the third quarter of this year. The results were parallel to the continued improvements in the bank's financial indicators," the bank said in a statement. Most leading banks in Lebanon were able to override the negative effects of the July-August Israeli bombardment. The Central Bank said earlier that more than half of the deposits that fled Lebanon during the war returned to the country at the end of hostilities. An official with the BOB said that most of the deposits withdrawn from the Lebanese branches were actually transferred to the bank's offices in London and other countries. "We did not feel the impact of the war because some of the clients moved their accounts to our own branches abroad," the official said. BOB has representative offices in Dubai, Lagos and Baghdad. BOB is one of the five Lebanese banks that are listed on the Beirut Stock Exchange.
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