Global reports KD 14.1m revenues, KD 2.5m net profit in 2017
KUWAIT: Global Investment House (“Global” or the “Company”), a regional asset management and investment banking firm headquartered in Kuwait, with offices in major capital markets in the MENA region, yesterday announced its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2017 reporting a net profit of KD 2.5 million ($8.3 million), total revenues of KD 14.1 million ($46.7 million), and fee and commission income of KD 10.3 million ($34.1million) representing 73 percent of total revenues. During 2017, the Asset Management business remained resilient with KD 910 million ($3.0 billion) of assets under management. Our asset management teams remained focused on launching products and services best suited to our clients’ investment needs offering recurring income/yield accompanied with low volatility. During the year, the Company raised over $71 million of new money in various strategies primarily incomeyielding UK real estate and has distributed to clients more than $93 million from dividends and proceeds from exits.
MENA Asset Management continued to report competitive performance for its managed funds and portfolios in the regional equity markets resulting in recognitions from industry leaders. Several funds managed by the Company outperformed their respective benchmarks and peers.
The Real Estate Asset Management team has successfully acquired four properties in 2017 to raise the total assets acquired through the commercial real estate program launched late 2015 to seven assets with total value of GBP300 million. These properties were off-market investment opportunities outside Central London, of Grade A specifications, producing rental income on long-term triple-net leases with investment grade or government related entities. The team has successfully distributed an average annualized income of 9.25 percent on the managed assets since inception and is currently working on several transactions in the developed markets.
In Private Equity, the team’s efforts to add value to portfolio companies resulted in achieving major milestones in implementing the growth strategies for several companies. The team successfully exited three portfolio companies and continued to provide its clients with liquidity in challenging geopolitical and economic environment.The team is expected to distribute more than $35 million to its clients in the first quarter 2018.
Special Situations Asset Management, a tailored “winddown” asset management service offered to clients seeking value enhancement and optimal realization of difficult assets portfolio covering multi asset classes with focus on the MENA region, has successfully executed the portfolios’ strategies and resulted in generating cash inflows with an exit multiple around 1.6x to clients’ target valuations. During 2017, the Investment Banking team generated revenues from four different mandates in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, including the sale of a controlling stake one of the largest social infrastructure companies in Kuwait. The team is currently working on several mandates and has an interesting pipeline of M&A and advisory mandates.
On the brokerage front, Global made focused efforts to grow the institutional brokerage business leading to gains in Jordan market share. Due to handsome increase in the market turnover in Kuwait and market share gains in Jordan, the brokerage fee revenues recorded a 25.6 percent year-on-year growth. The Company’s continuous efforts to control and rationalize its cost base resulted in a marginal decline of KD 0.2 million in the operating cost base to KD 12.0 million, despite one-off impact of change in Kuwait Labor Law relating to indemnities for Kuwaiti employees. Full impact of the change in law, amounting to KD 0.6 million, was recorded in 2017 financial results. Following the KD 22.9 million ($75 million) distributed in August 2017 through capital reduction, the board of directors have proposed a 5 percent cash dividend (KD 0.005 per share) for distribution to the shareholders subject to the annual general meeting of the shareholders’ approval.
Hareb Al-Darmaki, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said: “Global has remained on a consistent path of profitability for the fifth consecutive year, driven by effective implementation of its fee business driven strategy. We are delighted by these financial results, which were generated during difficult times for the capital markets and the investment services industry in the region.” Sulaiman Mohammed Al-Rubaie, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Despite the extremely volatile and challenging times, we successfully widened our client base, enhanced our product offering, signed new mandates, raised new money and maintained our profitability momentum. Being a MENA player, Global cannot be isolated from the regional headwinds; however, we remain committed to continue creating value to all our stakeholders, through our resilient and robust fee-based business model, innovative strategies and execution capabilities.”