AMMAN: Jordan's Housing Bank for Trade and Finance on Monday posted a 13 percent year-on-year rise in 2011 net profit to 100 million dinars, bolstered by healthy growth in its core retail and commercial business.
The country's second lender had assets of 6.9 billion dinars ($9.7 billion) at end-December, up 3.9 percent from a year previously, it said in a preliminary statement which still needs approval from the Central Bank of Jordan.
Chairman Michel Marto said the bank's healthy results, which came despite uncertainty in the region and the economic slowdown, were due to growth in its core commercial and retail business and better profitability of its foreign subsidiaries.
"The results reflect the financial solvency of the bank and its strong capital base and the soundness and quality of its loan and investment portfolio," Marto said in the statement.
The bank has a presence in Syria, the Palestinian territories and Algeria, where it has a joint venture bank, and a branch in Bahrain. It also has representative offices in Iraq, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.
The bank's total loans portfolio, which includes credit to government bodies, rose 3.5 percent to 2.7 billion dinars at the end of 2011 from the same period in 2010, while total deposits rose 3 percent to 5.4 billion.
Housing Bank's main shareholders are Qatar National Bank with over 35 percent followed by Libya's Foreign Bank with a 15 percent shareholding and Kuwait's Real Estate Investment Consortium with a stake of over 10 percent.
Jordan's state pension fund also has a 15.4 percent shareholding. Gulf Arab investors along with Jordanian businessmen own the remaining shares of the bank, which has the largest branch network in the country.
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