Bank Muscat posts 20% rise in Q1 profit

Bank Muscat, Oman’s largest lender by market value, rode increased lending growth and a drop in impairments to post a 20-per cent rise in first-quarter net profit, beating analysts’ forecasts. First-quarter net profit rose to 33.4 million rials ($86.75 million), compared with 27.8 million for the year-ago period, Bank Muscat said in a bourse statement on Monday. Four analysts polled by Reuters were on average expecting the bank to post a net profit of 31.6 million rials for the quarter. Impairments against credit losses dropped to 12.5 million rials from 13.1 million rials, the lender said.