Nicosia, Feb 19 (ANI): Ahli United Bank of Bahrain has announced that its net profit for 2008 amounted to 255.7 million dollars, while its total operating income rose to 665.5 million dollars.

Compared to 2007, the net profit of the bank was 296.3 million dollars, but the lower profits are attributed to a higher level of net loan provisions of 96.8 million dollars to ensure adequate coverage of problematic exposures and maintenance of asset quality in a prudent manner.

This resulted in incurring a loss of 24.4 million dollars in the last quarter of the year.

The Bank maintains a prudent 90 per cent specific provision coverage of its non-performing loan portfolio at December 31, 2008, in addition to its significant general provision balances.

Non performing loans to total loans stood at 1.9 per cent. In addition, the bank has fully written off its impaired international investments, resulting in a loss of 12.4 million dollars, as compared to a profit of 24.9 million dollars in 2007.

Ahli United Bank's total assets of 23.6 billion dollars grew by 2.6 per cent in 2008, compared to 23.0 billion dollars in 2007, as the bank focused on liability management, particularly increasing its client deposits.

Client deposits rose by 22.2 per cent to 13.2 billion dollars, with strong deposit growth achieved from retail and non retail depositors reflecting our clients' strong underlying confidence in the Bank.

During 2008, AUBthe bank's robust performance earned it a string of prestigious awards, winning the 'Best Bank in Middle East 2008' award by Global Finance; 'Best Bank - Bahrain' from Euromoney and The Banker; 'Best Commercial Bank - Bahrain' from Asiamoney and 'Best Foreign Exchange Bank in the Middle East' and 'Best Trade Finance Bank in Bahrain" from Global Finance. (ANI)