Doha Bank leaves worst provisions behind as profit tops estimate

Doha Bank, whose quarterly profit beat estimates, has left the worst of bad loans behind as it seeks to scale up investments, its chief executive officer has said. “Now we are back to normal and we have a programmed approach to make sure we mapped enterprise risk and market risk,” Dr R Seetharaman told Bloomberg TV. “We are on target in terms of sustainable performance yet again.” The Qatari lender’s third-quarter profit of $73mn topped the highest analyst estimate. Net income fell in the second-quarter on provisions. Opportunity lies in scaling up investments as the investment book has grown 15% year-to-date, Seetharaman said. Doha Bank is looking to make use of non-hydrocarbon growth in Qatar and the lender may tap the debt market for $500mn early next year. “We are slowing down in contract financing but consolidating in the rest of the sectors,” he said.