SINGAPORE — United Overseas Bank (UOB), the Republic's third-largest lender, has reported a 6.2 per cent decline in its fourth-quarter net profit, a tad better than analysts' expectations, as loss provisions surprisingly fell despite the increase in allowances for bad loans in the oil and gas sector. For the three months ended Dec 31, net profit totalled S$739 million, down from S$788 million in the corresponding period a year ago, UOB said on Friday (Feb 17) in a pre-market statement filed with the Singapore Exchange. This is better than the 7.4 per cent fall in net profit to S$730 million forecast by analysts polled by Reuters and Bloomberg. Net interest income was stable at S$1.28 billion as strong loan growth in the quarter was offset by a 10 basis point decrease in the net interest margin to 1.69 per cent.