Ahlibank announced a net profit growth of 14.4% for the year ended 2014
21 January 2015
Ahli Bank Q.S.C. (ABQK) reported a net profit of QR 601.3 million for the year 2014, as against the net profit of QR 525.7 million of 2013, recording a growth of 14.4%.
The bank’s financial performance is highlighted below:
- Gross Operating Income at QR 933.9 million recorded a strong growth of 9.9% over 2013.
- Net Interest Income and Fees and Commission Income rose by 9.6% and 13.0% respectively, driven by growth in assets and investments.
- The Cost to Income Ratio contained at 30%, which compares favorably against peers.
- Total Assets grew by a significant 19.9% and registered a historical high of QR 31,380 million, in comparison to QR 26,177 million reported at December 2013.
- Loans and Advances grew by a healthy 23.1% to QR 21,308 million from QR 17,312 million recorded at December 2013, witnessing a steady growth in market share.
- Non-performing loans ratio (NPL) continued to improve to 1.20% in December 2014 from 1.43% in December 2013, reflecting the Bank’s sound asset quality.
- ROAE and ROAA were strong at 15.5% and 2.2% respectively. Capital Adequacy Ratio remained strong at 16.6% with Tier I capital at 16.1% at December 2014 (prior to any dividend distribution for the year 2014).
Commenting on the full year results of 2014, Sheikh Faisal Bin Abdul-Aziz Bin Jassim Al-Thani, Chairman and Managing Director of Ahli Bank stated, “Our business banking division has succeeded in realising the opportunities generated across Qatar, with steady momentum in business and growth in market share, without compromising on asset quality. We have also built two long term strategies which can be considered as significant milestones in the bank’s list of achievements, namely addressing maturity structure of our liabilities in preparation for Basel III, and rebranding the bank to support our franchise value. As recognition of our excellent performance, both credit rating agencies, Fitch and Capital Intelligence, have now upgraded the bank’s, Long Term Foreign Currency Rating to ‘A’ from ‘A-’, reflecting Ahlibank’s satisfactory liquidity, sound capitalization and asset quality”.
“Board of Directors of Ahlibank has proposed a cash dividend of 15% (QR 1.5 per share) and a bonus dividend of 10% (1 new share for every 10 shares held) as the dividend distribution for the year 2014. The dividend proposal intends to maximize shareholders’ wealth, at the same time generating internal capital to meet the bank’s growth aspirations”, the Chairman commented.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors I would like to thank our customers for their trust, the shareholders for their confidence in our mission, the management and staff for all their unequivocal dedication and hard work, and a special appreciation to Qatar Central Bank’s continuous guidance and support” the Chairman concluded.
These results are based on the audited financial statements, which are subject to the final approval of Qatar Central Bank and the shareholders.