Qatar National Bank (QNB) is set to acquire more stakes in banks around the world in the coming years, said Ali al-Kuwari, the bank’s acting group CEO, speaking at the Euromoney Qatar event held in Doha on 24 October.

He said potential acquisitions worldwide is a fundamental strategy used by the lender to drive growth.

Al-Kuwari’s comments follow QNB’s acquisition of a 23.5 per cent stake in the African financial institution Ecobank in September.

Last year, the bank acquired a 97.1 per cent stake in National Societe Generale Egypt and rebranded it to QNB Alahli. It also increased its stake in Tunisian Qatar Bank (TQB) and rebranded it to QNB Tunisia.

QNB opened a representative office in China in 2013 and a subsidiary in India.

It is the largest bank in Qatar and the wider Gulf region in terms of assets.

Its net profits hit QR8bn ($2.2bn) for the first nine months of this year, marking a 12.6 per cent increase on September 2013.

Its loan book rose to QR329bn in the nine-month period, an increase of more than 8 per cent on the same period last year.