KUWAIT: Kuwait's Gulf Bank expects the third quarter of this year to be a turnaround quarter as it executes a two-year plan to rebuild itself, its chief executive said on Tuesday. "What everybody expects is that this (third quarter) will be the turnaround quarter... and going forward every quarter should be slightly better than the previous one," Michel Accad said at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit in Kuwait. Gulf Bank was rescued by the Kuwaiti central bank in 2008, after about 260 million dinars ($921.6 million) of derivatives losses. The lender made a net profit of 1.48 million dinars in the second quarter this year, from a 9.1 million dinars loss in a year earlier. Accad said the bank's 2010-2011 rebuilding plan aims at consolidating its position locally, strengthening its infrastructure and building a "fortress" balance sheet. "If the plan succeeds, we'll be extremely powerful, with a lot of excess cash and even excess capital," he said. Gulf Bank's current market share is about 12 percent, and the lender aims to reach 16 percent in five years, Accad added.
