RIYADH – Saudi Hollandi Bank (SHB), Saudi Arabia's fourth-largest listed bank, said Saturday its fourth quarter net profit rose 35.6 percent compared to the same period last year due higher operating income. The lender said in a statement posted on the Saudi bourse's website it made SR313.4 million ($83.6 million) in the last three months of 2012 compared to SR231.2 million in the last quarter of 2011. Saudi banks have enjoyed successive years of expansionary government budgets, ample liquidity and improving corporate loan demand. Operating profit for the fourth-quarter grew by 9.2 percent to SR550 million, Saudi Hollandi said, and income from special commissions increased by 10.5 percent to SR345.1 million. Saudi Hollandi's loans and advances portfolio climbed 20 percent to SR45.3 billion. Separately, Saudi Arabian Fertilizers Co. (Safco) posted a 10.3 percent decline in fourth-quarter net profits, missing analyst forecasts, due to lower urea prices, the firm said in a bourse statement Saturday. Safco, the affiliate of the world's biggest petrochemical company by market value, Saudi Basic Industries (Sabic), made SR1.146 billion in the three months ending on Dec. 31 compared with SR1.277 billion in the same period a year earlier, it said. “The decrease in the fourth quarter, 2012 compared to the same quarter last year is due to lower Urea prices,” Safco said. Operating profit for the fourth quarter fell by 7 percent to SR1 billion from SR1.1 billion in the same period a year earlier. — SG
