CAIRO: Egyptian lender National Societe Generale Bank was expected to post a 7 percent drop in first-quarter net income after a solid loan book and efficient business helped it weather months of political turmoil. Egypt's second-biggest bank by market capital was expected to post net income of LE 327 million ($55 million), a Reuters poll found. NSGB will be the first listed Egyptian bank to show how it fared through the uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak. It was expected to report results on Thursday. Its shares have lost a quarter of their value, while Egypt's benchmark share index has tumbled 29 percent. Analysts have been drawing a distinction between how public sector lenders fared in January and February when the political turmoil sparked strikes across industry and a slump in tourism and investment, and the fate of more efficient private banks. "Banks like NSGB and CIB are a lot more resilient in the way they operate," Deutsche Bank analyst Ryan Ayache said. "The broad trend is that there has been more of an impact on public sector institutions." He said NSGB has a more diversified loan book and less exposure to the most problematic parts of the Egyptian economy. The bank's liquidity meant it could increase its allocation of high-yielding Egyptian treasury bills, while public sector lenders were already "up to their neck" in T-bills, Ayache said.
