The Qatar National Bank (QNB), a leading lender in the Gulf Arab region, posted a rise in net profit for 2016’s first quarter despite its Egyptian assets being negatively affected by the devaluation of the pound.

QNB’s net profit saw a year-on-year 7.1 percent increase to register QAR 2.9 billion ($787 million) compared to last year, the bank stated on Wednesday.

During the first three months of this year, QNB’s total assets were increased by 9.7 percent from March 2015 to reach a record QAR 550 billion ($151.1 billion) due to 16.4 percent growth in loans reaching QAR 402 billion ($110.4 billion).

However, the Qatari lender said its assets and liabilities “have been affected by the sharp devaluation in the Egyptian currency, in which total assets and customer deposits were negatively impacted by QAR 7 billion ($1.8 billion) and QAR 5 billion ($1.4 billion) respectively.”

Last month, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) devalued the pound by 14.4 percent against the dollar to EGP 8.85, two days before re-strengthening it to 8.EGP 78 at an exceptional auction in an attempt to eradicate the flourishing black market.

Deposits rose by 10.1 percent to QAR 403 billion ($110.7 billion), which makes the loan to deposit ratio 99.7 percent, the bank said

QNB Group is present through its subsidiaries and associate companies in more than 27 countries in three continents.

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