Interest income, property sale buoy StanChart Kenya's Q3 profit

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Rising net interest income and the one-off gain from the sale of a property buoyed Standard Chartered Kenya's nine months pretax profit by 14 percent. The bank, which is part of Standard Chartered Plc, said in a statement on Thursday that pretax profit rose to 11.2 billion shillings ($124.38 million) during the period to the end of September. Total income grew 12 percent to 19.8 billion shillings, the lender said. Net interest income increased by 8 percent on the back of growth in loans written but curbed by falling interest rates. The bank said non-interest income rose 21 percent to 6.5 billion shillings, thanks to the sale of one of its properties. Stripped of the one-off gain, non-interest income was down 8 percent as income from currency trading dropped, the bank added. Bad debts rose to 13.3 billion shillings from 3.8 billion in the same period last year, pushing provisions up to 1.13 billion shillings from 775 million, the bank said. (1 US dollar = 90.0500 Kenyan shilling)