The UAE’s First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) has reported group net profit of AED8.09bn ($2.2bn) for the first nine months of 2017, down 4 per cent year-on-year, or up 2 per cent when one-off gains on sale of investment properties are excluded.

For the third quarter of 2017, group net profit was up 2 per cent on the previous quarter. When compared to the third quarter of 2016, group net profit was down 18 per cent, or 4 per cent lower when excluding one-off gains on sale of investment properties.

The bank says that, as of the end of September, it has ample liquidity with a loans-to-deposits ratio of 86.6 per cent.

FAB reported a net profit of AED2.56bn for the second quarter of this year, the first quarterly earnings for the lender after being established as a merged entity at the end of March 2017.

FAB, which was set up by combining balance sheets of First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi, two of Abu Dhabi’s biggest banks.