Bank Audi named 'Bank of the Year 2007 - Lebanon' by The Banker Magazine

The Bank was represented by Mr. Raymond Audi, Chairman & General Manager, at the Awards Distribution Ceremony held on November 28, at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

Established in 1926, The Banker magazine is part of the Financial Times, a renowned British publishing group providing global financial, business and professional information services. The Banker's annual Awards program has been running for 8 years and is considered a benchmark for financial institutions featuring high-quality products and services across all areas of commercial and investment banking. The selection of "Bank of the Year" Awards is based on quantitative and qualitative criteria including financial performance indicators, key business strengths, major achievements and strategic outlook.

Stephen Timewell, Chief Editor of The Banker, seized this occasion to underline Bank Audi's achievements during the past year, which were the main drive behind The Banker's decision to reward the Bank's performance. Expanding both its regional and domestic networks, the Bank has indeed produced outstanding results for 2006, with a 55.1% increase in net profits to $164.1m, a 23.5% growth in total assets to $14.2bn, and a massive $600m increase in shareholders' equity to reach $1.7bn, aimed at financing its dynamic regional expansion strategy.

Within this context, the regional presence of the Group was expanded in 2006 to five new markets:
- in Egypt after the acquisition of Cairo Far East Bank, building up one of the largest entities of the Group,
- in Sudan with the acquisition of 75% of the National Bank of Sudan,
- in Saudi Arabia through the setup of an investment company,
- in Qatar with a Corporate/Private Bank in Qatar Financial Center, and
- in Abu Dhabi with a representative office catering for the region through universal banking activities.

These new entities follow on an existing presence in Jordan and Syria, along with a historical presence in Europe, namely in France and Switzerland. Such a regional footprint provides the Bank with a large coverage of the MENA region, with significant cross selling opportunities.

Chairman Raymond Audi

"We highly value and appreciate getting once again the Bank of the Year award by the Banker. It is an important recognition for Bank Audi's expansion and development efforts at a steady dynamic pace. Beyond enhancing its positioning on its domestic market over the past year, Bank Audi has actually accelerated the pace of its regional expansion, launching outlets in a number of new markets in the Middle East and North Africa region. Looking ahead, the Bank aims at pursuing further its efforts in terms of new business development, product and service diversification, and cross border expansion towards high value-added regional markets, thus reinforcing its positioning as a full-fledged regional bank in a fast growing region of banking opportunities at large."