Earnings rose 13% Q-o-Q; ahead of estimates. Al Rajhi’s 4Q2015 headline net income rose 13% Q-o-Q to SAR1,949 million, 12% above our estimates of SAR1,746 million, and 16% ahead of Bloomberg consensus. The bank also announced a cash dividend of SAR1.0/share for 2H2015, higher than SAR0.75/share in 2H2014.   Key Positives: i) Improvement in spreads (+3bps Q-o-Q); ii) strong non-interest income growth (+58% Q-o-Q). Key Negatives: i) higher provisions (+29% Q-o-Q); ii) decline in deposits (-3.5% Q-o-Q); and iii) marginal decline in loans (-0.1% Q-o-Q). (company, Murad Ansari)   Our view on the results: A jump in non-interest income primarily drove the earnings surprise. Earnings are likely driven by better investment income, in our view. In the previous quarter, non-interest income was weighed down by losses accrued from the bank’s investment in mutual funds. Net interest spreads also improved marginally after three quarters of successive decline as the bank shed deposits and better managed balance sheet liquidity. Credit costs however rose sharply, and were likely aimed at improving NPL coverage. Loan growth remained sluggish, ending the year at only 2.1% Y-o-Y. This is slightly negative as the first and fourth quarters in the past tend to be the strongest quarters for loan growth.   We have a Neutral rating on Al Rajhi. While earnings were ahead of estimates, we await release of detailed results to determine the quality of earnings beat. Our key concerns for 2016e are weak loan and fee income growth, and higher provisioning.