Qatar First Bank L.L.C. (Public) “QFB”, a leading Shari’ah compliant bank based in Qatar, regulated by QFCRA and listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), released its financial results for the three-months period ended 30th September 2019. According to the released financials, QFB reported a net profit of QAR 1.54 million attributable to equity holders of the bank, compared with a net loss of QAR 71.6 million in the same period of 2018.
HE Sheikh. Faisal bin Thani Al-Thani, QFB Chairman, commented:
“We witness another profitable quarter after generating a net profit in first quarter of 2019 and the outlook is optimistic. It is evident that QFB is harnessing the opportunities created thorough revised strategy where our key priority is sustainable organic growth of the bank’s customer base of HNWIs, institutional investors and government related entities. We have finalized few viable options to further fuel our growth through acquiring several yielding real estate properties in US while structuring several capital protected structured products.”
Bank highlights for the Quarter, an increase of 39% and 19% in both fee income and other income respectively mainly derived through structured products & investments and a reduction of 18% in returns to unrestricted investment account holders (the cost of funding) due to the better management of its loan to deposit ratio as compared with the same period of 2018.
The bank is continuing its strategy on liquidating its proprietary investments; and the significant progress has been made during current nine month period evidenced by the exit of its investments in English Home, Kuwait Energy and, subsequently Future Industries Holding. Furthermore, the bank is in the final stage of completing its exit from its investments in Food Services Company.
During October 2019, QFB announced the successful exit of its 71.3% stake in the Future Industries Holding. QFB’s stake was sold to Toppan Gravity in line with the Bank’s strategy for monetizing its private equity portfolio and reinvesting in more secure assets across politically stable jurisdictions. QFB was able to generate net proceeds of ~US$ 22m from the disposal.
QFB’s Deputy CEO, Ayman Zaidan, commented
“QFB had owned this asset for more than 10 years. As part of our commitment to the shareholders, we have been exploring liquidity options for all the Bank’s investments. I am optimistic with the outcome of this exit as it demonstrates that our new strategy is achievable. I look forward towards future collaboration with Toppan new projects”.
Newly appointed board of directors has embarked in a promising journey on bank’s transformational shift align with its revised strategy in shifting its revenue streams on a more prudent measure of fee-based revenue. As an endorsement, QFB has already begun generating fee income by offering client-focused investment products, primarily in real estate and aviation.