National Bank of Kuwait–Egypt (NBK), the Gulf Arab state's largest commercial lender, reported a net profit of 1.16 billion pounds during the third quarter of 2017 from 659.7 million pounds during the same period in 2016, with a growth of 75.84 percent. The total assets grew by 37.95 percent reaching 55.72 billion Egyptian Pounds as of the end of September 2017, compared to 40.39 billion Egyptian Pounds for the same period last year. Moreover, the total customer deposits during this period increased by 27.84 percent reaching 40.4 billion pounds, compared to 31.6 billion Pounds for the same period last year, while net customer loans and facilities rose as of the end of September 2017 by 47.62 percent to reach 24.8 billion pounds from 16.8 billion pounds for the same period last year. The Group Chief Executive Officer at National Bank of Kuwait SAK and Chairman of the National Bank of Kuwait – Egypt, Isam Jassim Al-Sager, stated that the strong growth achieved by the bank in Egypt reaffirms its success in enhancing its position in the Egyptian market, which represents one of the main growing markets of NBK Group, given the promising growth opportunities and positive prospects of this market. He pointed out that the strength of the profits of National Bank – Egypt stems from the fact that they are operational profits resulting from the improvement of the business environment, which reflects the stability of the economic situation in Egypt. He indicated that this stability will create for the bank new opportunities (investment and financing), which will contribute to improving the level of product integration between the bank and the group, thus strengthening its position in the Egyptian market. Al-Sager affirmed that NBK Group investments in Egypt are strategic long-term investments. NBK – Egypt is deemed one of its most important affiliated foreign branches due to its great economic weight in the region. He clarified that its importance to the group is increasing over time. This is reflected in the continued growth of its profits, which increases its contribution to the Group's total profit. He added that they aim to strengthen their position in Egypt, as well as to increase growth rates in the coming period in a way that reflects their optimistic vision of the Egyptian economy, noting that it is a market with multiple components and solid foundations. He emphasized that NBK – Egypt is always striving to provide the best banking services to its customers, in line with NBK's leading regional and global niche. For his part, the Managing Director of National Bank of Kuwait–Egypt, Dr Yasser Hassan, stated that the bank continues its strong performance by achieving high growth rates in all its financial indicators despite the challenges experienced by financial markets locally and globally and the changes in the economic arena in Egypt as a result of floating the Pound exchange rate at the end of last year, thanks to the prudent policy pursued by the bank as a member of NBK Group. He added that the Bank's policy is to maintain the diversification and balance of sources of income and loan portfolio on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to provide more flexible financing solutions in addition to offering innovative banking products that meet the actual needs of customers and are based on an accurate and thorough study of the market; this in addition to the bank's robust financial position, budgetary strength and successful strategy He added that most of NBK-Egypt profits stem from credit operations with the corporate sector, where the bank's credit portfolio includes a wide variety of companies that deal with it, thus reflecting the diversification of the Egyptian economy. He pointed out that the bank seeks to strengthen its position in the retail sector of individuals during the coming period. He clarified that the bank launched in November 2014 an ambitious strategy to implement development and restructuring that included attracting new competencies. The quality of offered products has also been improved and the investment and administrative structure of the bank has been fully restructured. He indicated that the bank now has 43 branches spread throughout the Egyptian governorates and that it seeks to increase their number to 60 branches over the next three years. It is noteworthy to mention that NBK – Egypt is a member of the National Bank of Kuwait Group. It was established in Egypt in 1980 under the name of the National Bank of Egypt. It has a network of banking branches spread in the most vital locations in the various governorates and cities of Egypt, including Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Delta, Sinai, the Red Sea and Upper Egypt, as well as industrial areas such as: the cities of the Sixth of October and the tenth of Ramadan. It is also one of the few banks in the Egyptian market that have an Islamic license in addition to the conventional license. It has two Islamic branches, which allow the bank to offer Sharia compliant products as well as conventional products. It is worth mentioning that the National Bank of Kuwait, established in 1952 as the oldest national bank and financial institution in the State of Kuwait and the Arabian Gulf region, is one of the largest and most prominent Arab banks and it has the highest credit rating in the Middle East. The global agencies Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch unanimously confirm the robustness of its financial indicators, the quality of its high assets, its strong capitalization, the experience of its management, the clarity of its strategic vision and the availability of a stable funding base. The National Bank of Kuwait also maintains its position among the top 50 safest banks in the world for the twelfth consecutive year. NBK Group today has the largest network of local and international branches, reaching 153 branches and subsidiaries covering four continents around the world and spread across the United States, Europe, the Gulf States, the Middle East, China and Singapore. Source: Middle East Monitor
