Cairo – Mubasher: NBK Capital said, in a report issued Thursday, it maintained a Buy recommendation on Commercial International Bank (CIB) – Egypt.

The research unit of Kuwait’s NBK also kept the stock’s fair value at EGP 64.20, with 14% upside potential.

“Loan growth weakened to 3% q-o-q following a 9% expansion in the previous quarter. YTD, loan growth stands at 12%, broadly in line with our FY2015 forecast (26%) and management’s guidance north of 25%,” said NBK Capital.

The Egypt-based lender posted 27.9% growth in consolidated net profit for the first half of 2015 to EGP 2.255 billion ($287.28 million), compared with EGP 1.7 billion ($221.8 million) in the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile, H1 standalone net profit amounted to EGP 2.198 billion ($280 million), a rise of 32.2% year-on-year from EGP 1.66 billion ($211.77 million).

The stock rose 0.25% or EGP 0.14 at 10:38 Cairo time to reach EGP 56.40.

The bank’s net interest and commissions income rose 2.33% to EGP 802 million, from EGP 683.74 million in H1-14.