DOHA: Qatar First Bank (QFB) has released its financial results for the three-months period ended 31 March 2019, reporting a net profit of QR3.2m attributable to equity-holders of the bank, compared with a net loss of QR47.1m in the same period of 2018, as well as a 71 percent increase in revenues of QR57.5m, compared with QR33.6m in the same period of 2018.
QFB is a leading Shari’ah-compliant bank based in Qatar, regulated by QFCRA and listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE).
Sheikh Faisal bin Thani Al Thani, new QFB Chairman, said: “We are glad to see the turnaround performance of the bank by generating a net profit in the first quarter. Positive results are a direct manifest that QFB is back on the right track with a new strategy that executive management has developed and implemented. This is only the start and I am looking to see more over the current financial year.
Board and the executive management team’s efforts fruited these positive results. With the new elected BoD, assisted by the executive team, we will work together to mine new opportunities and avail them for the best interests of QFB shareholders, customers and depositors.”
Key highlights for the current period being a total income growth of 71 percent compared to the same period of 2018, mainly driven by an increase in fee based income on structured products and investments from QR6.5m to QR14.4m, and increase in net financing income from QR3.2m to QR11.9m. The increase in fee-based income is due to the bank’s newly implemented business strategy of moving away from asset-based income generation to being a fee income based business. The increase in net financing income was mainly driven by a reduction in the costs of funding due to better management of the bank’s loan to deposit ratio and more competitive profit rates offered on deposits.
Bank’s stakeholders are witnessing the results of revised strategy where the bank is undergoing a transformational shift from a proprietary based investment model to having a diversified base of fee-based revenue streams. Align to this new strategy; QFB has already begun generating fee income by offering client-focused investment products, primarily in real estate and aviation.
At the recently concluded bank’s AGM, QFB shareholders have elected a robust well diversified new BoD consists of prominent economic and business figures which will definitely support QFB transactions volume and work to improve the bank financial performance over current financial year.
Source from: The Peninsula