Ahlibank Holds Annual and Extraordinary General Meeting
20 February 2018
Ahlibank, one of Qatar’s leading banks, held its Annual General Meeting and Extraordinary General Meeting on Tuesday, 20th February, with good attendance from the Bank’s shareholders.
Ahlibank’s board reported a net profit of QR 639.7 million for the year ended 2017 with an increase of 1.3% over 2016. (2016:- QR 631.7 million)
The Annual General Meeting approved the Board’s recommendation for distribution of dividends for the year ended 31 December 2017 to the registered shareholders as at the date of the AGM. These are in the form of cash dividends at the rate of 10%, and in the form of free shares at the rate of 5%. The dividend proposal intends to maximise shareholders’ wealth, as well meet the requirements of the Bank’s internal capital, liquidity and balance sheet growth projections.
The Extraordinary Annual General Meeting also approved the increase of the Bank’s capital by 5% amounting to 10,017,164 shares i.e. the number of shares approved as dividend. With this increase the Bank’s capital becomes 210,360,435 shares.
Sheikh Faisal Bin AbdulAziz Bin Jassem Al-Thani, Chairman & Managing Director, commented on Ahlibank’s financial performance: “We delivered another year of steady performance in a challenging market environment. The Bank posted 8.9% growth in core operating income and 1.3% growth in net profit. NIM management was efficient as the benefits of asset re-pricing and loan growth more than offset the increased funding cost. Further, we focused on improving the maturity profile of the Bank’s liabilities.”
Sheikh Faisal Bin AbdulAziz Bin Jassem Al-Thani further stated: “We continue to live by our brand values to be at the heart of the community and our promise to provide the most personal banking experience in Qatar.”
The Bank’s financial performance highlights for 2017 include:
- The Bank’s Balance Sheet grew by 4.5% over December 2016 to QR 39,883 million, driven by growth in Loans and Advances and Investment Securities.
- Liquid Assets as a percentage to Total Assets stood at a healthy 25.8% in December 2017.
- Total Funding expanded by 4.3% to reach QR 33,786 million as against QR 32,404 million in December 2016. The funding growth was primarily driven by a 100% growth in Debt Securities (EMTN) to QR 3,624 million and a 16.2% growth in Other Borrowings to QR 2,192 million in December 2017, consisting of funding generated through medium term loans.
- Total Customer Deposits increased 6.6% as against June 2017 to QR 23,569 million, despite challenging market conditions. However, Customer Deposits fell 5.8% vs December 2016 as Ahlibank focused on improving stable funding and maturity profile through EMTN Tranche II issue during Q1 2017 and additional medium term loans in Q2 2017.
- Total Operating Income increased by 8.9% to QR 1,044 million on account of higher Net Interest Income as higher loan balances and asset re-pricing more than offset the increased funding cost.
- Cost to Income Ratio for 2017 improved to 30.6%, reflecting efficient management of operating expenses.
- The Return on Average Assets (ROAA) and Return on Average Equity (ROAE) stood solid at 1.70% and 12.6% respectively, despite an increase in balance sheet size and equity base.
- Non-Performing Loans Ratio (NPL) stood at 0.99% as of December 2017 reflecting strong asset quality. Loan loss provisions as of December 2017 was sufficient to cover 143% of Non-Performing Loans.