Tuesday, 25 January 2011 at 17:59, Reuters, Doha
Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar's fourth-biggest lender by market value, saw its net profit climb 3.2 per cent in the fourth-quarter, Reuters calculations show.
Fourth-quarter net profit rose to 289 million Qatari riyals ($79.4 million) from 280m riyals a year earlier.
Reuters calculated fourth-quarter profit based on the lender's previous financial statements. Masraf Al Rayan earlier posted a nine-month net profit of 911.5m riyals.
Net profit for the full-year was 1.21 billion riyals, a 37.5 per cent jump compared with the year-ago profit of 880.7m riyals, the lender said in a statement on Tuesday.
Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, Qatar investment Authority (QIA) is taking up a 10 per cent stake in Qatari banks - the remainder of a planned 20 per cent purchase announced during the global financial crisis - to provide support to its local lenders.
QIA's move is slated to take place in the first quarter and is likely to boost confidence in the sector.
Qatar's central bank issued a 50 billion-riyal three-year bond to local banks recently to raise funds for development projects and to drain excess money from the banking system.
Qatar National Bank, the Gulf state's largest lender by market capitalisation, posted a 40.2 per cent jump in fourth-quarter earnings on January 10, beating analysts' expectations as financing and interest income soared.
Qatar National Bank was the first major regional lender to report earnings and is closely watched for indications of the sector's performance.
Masraf Al Rayan said last March it had launched a Gulf-wide fund to manage up to $1.1 billion and focus on Gulf equities, as well as fixed-income instruments.
Shares of Masraf closed 1 per cent lower on Qatar bourse Tuesday. The benchmark index gained 0.4 per cent.
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