Saudi Arabian-based bank Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp) has recorded a profit of $57.5m for the fourth quarter of 2011, an 86 per cent rise since the same period in 2010.

The bank, which is owned by the 10 member states of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (Oapec) also announced a 7.4 per cent year on year increase in total assets to $4.63bn by the end of December 2011. Total equity rose by more than 6 per cent to $1.2bn.

“The achievements made in the fourth quarter will help further bolster the net worth of Apicorp and serve to reinforce its fiscal stability in what we expect will continue to be a challenging economic environment in 2012,” says Ahmad bin Hamad al-Nuaimi, chief executive officer and general manager at Apicorp.

The multilateral development bank was established in 1975 and is owned by the governments of the UAE (17 per cent), Bahrain (3 per cent), Algeria (5 per cent), Saudi Arabia (17 per cent), Syria (3 per cent), Iraq (10 per cent), Qatar (10 per cent), Kuwait (17 per cent), Libya (15 per cent), and Egypt (3 per cent).