Kuwait's Gulf Bank posts 8% rise in Q3 net profit

Kuwait's Gulf Bank posted an 8 percent rise in third quarter net profit, helped by growth in customer base and an improved balance sheet, the lender said on Wednesday. Net profit in the three months to September 30 came in at KD9.1m ($33.1m), up from KD8.4m in the year-earlier period, it said in a statement on the Kuwaiti bourse website. "The results we have announced today show the stable growth of the bank's customer base, and continued growth of net profits and core earnings," chairman Ali al-Rashaid al-Bader said in a separate statement. Gulf Bank said it made a net profit of KD27.4m in the first nine months of the year. The bank which was rescued by the Kuwait's central bank in 2008, has been steadily recovering from its crisis, when it faced big losses related to derivatives. Its chairman said earlier this year that it had covered all residual losses stemming from 2008. "The last two years have seen us put Gulf Bank back into a winning position, we have strengthened our balance sheet significantly," Bader said in the statement. The lender's shares closed flat on Wednesday at 0.54 dinars. The results were released after the market closed.