The Riyadh-headquartered Saudi Awwal Bank (SAB) board of directors has recommended payment of a 9.8% cash dividend for the second half of 2023.

The total distribution will reach 2.01 billion Saudi riyals ($535.97 million), or SAR 0.98 a share, the bank said in a statement to the Saudi stock exchange on Sunday.

The number of shares currently stands at 2.05 billion.

The date of distribution will be announced later.

Earlier, SAB reported a 45% increase in net profit to SAR7 billion in 2023, compared with SAR4.82 billion a year earlier.

The net profit beat analysts’ mean estimate of SAR 6.85 billion, according to LSEG data.

(Editing by Brinda Darasha; brinda.darasha@lseg.com)