Qatar First Bank L.L.C. (Public) “QFB” held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) yesterday to discuss the bank’s performance and future initiatives after releasing its financials for the year ended 31 December 2019 at QFB Lounge premises in Doha, while adhering to all the precautionary measures to ensure the safety of participants.

The bank AGM presided by Chairman HE Sheikh Faisal bin Thani Al Thani, along with attending shareholders, discussed and approved, the bank’s audited financial results and the performance of the 2019 full year of operation.

HE Sheikh Faisal bin Thani Al Thani, QFB’s Chairman, said:

“2019 arguably the most enunciated year for QFB with profusely of key incidents and decisions were taken throughout the year where we witnessed a turnaround performance with three profitable quarters which is a direct manifest that QFB’s new strategy map has started generating affirmative results.”

QFB’s growth momentum continued related to its income streams where fee income increased by 103% to QAR 32.3 million compared to QAR 15.9 million in 2018 largely driven by new structured products introduced during 2019. QFB made continuous gain from its cost rationalization plan where bank reduced its total expenses by 17.2% compared to 2018.

In line with QFB’s strategy of maximizing value from its proprietary investments, QFB managed to sell its shares in FutureCard Industries and Kuwait Energy Company. Additionally, QFB signed definitive agreements to sell its shares in Food Services Company.

QFB completed the $117 million off-market acquisition of 90 North, a four-building, 262k-square-foot office campus located in Bellevue, Washington which is QFB’s sixth product offering and fourth in the US real estate market. QFB also made a successful exit along with its investors through the sale of two Boeing 737-900ER aircrafts, which is its second sharia-compliant aviation deal. The two aircrafts were on a 7-year long-term sharia-compliant lease contract to Indonesia’s Lion Air.