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Lebanon’s Byblos Bank 9-month net profit up 26 pct

BEIRUT - Lebanon’s Byblos Bank said its net profit for the first nine months of the year rose 25.7 percent to $120.6 million, compared with the same period last year.

The bank said on Friday that total assets rose 11 percent to $15.1 billion for the first nine months of 2010 and customer deposits increased 12.7 percent to $11.6 billion.

“Byblos Bank continued to maintain high immediate liquidity in the form of short term placements with banks which increased by 31 percent during the first nine months of 2010 and represented 23.5 percent of customers’ deposits,” the bank said in a statement.

Lebanese banks have generally recorded robust profits over the last two years, shielded from the financial crisis due to ultra-conservative policies by the central bank, which prohibited exposure to risky instruments.

The bank’s share last traded down 2.29 percent to $1.71.