The National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the country's largest public bank, announced Monday an increase of net profit before tax by 14 per cent, to reach LE4.2 billion ($600 million) in the 2010/11 financial year.

Net profit after tax reached LE2.1 billion, the highest in the bank's history.

Return on equity reached 15 per cent and the government's share of the bank's profit will be disbursed fully, amounting to LE855.3 million.

NBE's loan portfolio reached LE93 billion in the financial year, marking an increase of LE22 billion. The bank's small and medium enterprise loan portfolio reached LE8.6 billion after offering 8,000 new clients with new facilities.

The bank's non-performing loans reached nine per cent of the total portfolio in 2010/11 compared to 20 per cent in the previous year.

As for liabilities, total deposits reached LE261 billion, marking an increase of LE16.4 billion in the financial year.

NBE is Egypt's oldest commercial bank and, along with Banque Misr, it is the largest in Egypt.

On 9 January, Fitch Ratings downgraded the long-term foreign currency issuer default ratings for the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), its wholly-owned subsidiary National Bank of Egypt (UK) and Egypt-based Commercial International Bank's (CIB) from 'BB' to 'BB-'.

On 30 December, Fitch Ratings downgraded Egypt's long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'BB-' from 'BB,' and its long-term local currency IDR to 'BB' from 'BB+'.