CIB’s profit falls by 20%

Commercial International Bank (CIB), Egypt’s biggest private bank by assets, said its consolidated net profit fell 20.1 pct in 2011 as the economy slowed in the wake of Egypt’s popular uprising. The decline in full-year profit was “primarily driven by much higher provisions” taken “as a pre-emptive measure to cope with the on-going economic upheaval Egypt is witnessing,” the bank said in a press release. Egypt’s business sector has been struggling to recover from the disruption in the wake of the uprising a year ago that led to President Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow. Egypt’s banks have also been hurt by a weak financial market and an exodus of foreign investors. CIB said its net profit slid to 1.62 billion Egyptian pounds ($268.4 million) from 2.02 billion in 2010. Net profit for the fourth quarter fell by 9.0 per cent to 549.1 million pounds, Reuters calculated by subtracting out the bank’s nine-month figures. CIB’s increased its provisions to 321 million pounds in 2011 from 6 million pounds in 2010, it said. Capital gains from the sale of investments in 2011 fell 80 per cent to 39 million pounds after the bank chose not to sell investments at current market prices, it said.