Moroccan bank Attijari H1 net profit rises 13 pct

* H1 net reaches 1.95 billion dirhams

* Revenue up 11.5 percent at 5.95 billion dirhams

* Shares flat at 272 dirhams

RABAT, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Morocco's Attijariwafabank (ATW.CS) said on Friday its net profit grew 13.1 percent in the first six months of this year after the bank expanded its business at home and abroad despite the global downturn.

Attijari, part of the Moroccan royal family's ONA group ONA.CS, controls over a quarter of the north African country's consumer lending market. Net profit grew to 1.95 billion Moroccan dirhams ($251.8 million) in January through June on revenue up 11.5 percent to 5.95 billion dirhams, the Casablanca-based bank said in a statement.

Traders in Casablanca said the results came in higher than expectations as they initially feared banking profits would be hit by the impact of the global crisis on the local economy.

More Moroccans are opening accounts and seeking out loans to buy homes and cars, after reforms to strengthen a banking sector once mired in bad debts pushed interest rates lower.

Attijari's client credits rose 8.7 percent in the first half of 2009 to 143.6 billion dirhams, while deposits inched up 0.5 percent at 152.5 billion, to give it a market share of 26.4 percent of both deposits and credits.

"Few of us expected such a good result from Attijari because of fears of the crisis repercussions. All the bank's 10 domestic business segments ranging from consumer to real estate lending achieved profit (growth) of between 8.4 percent and more than 50 percent," said a Casabalanca bourse analyst.

The bank's subsidiaries in Africa and Europe also saw their profits rising between 13.1 percent to 48.4 percent, figures showed.

Attijari's shares were flat at 272 dirhams after rising more than 1.0 percent in earlier trading following the release of the results.

Its stock has risen 5.6 percent so far this year compared with a 16.1 percent fall last year, with the wider Casablanca benchmark MASI index .MASI losing 0.6 percent so far this year versus a 13 percent decline in 2008.

The bank said provisions stood at 91 percent of bad loans, but gave no figure for bad debt which was put at 3.96 billion dirhams in the first half of last year. (Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi; Editing by David Holmes) ($1=7.744 Moroccan Dirham)