Boubyan Bank earns KD 3.1m in first quarter, up 25 pct y/y
Lender’s operating profit at KD 7 mln
KUWAIT CITY, April 15: Boubyan Bank reported a net profit of KD 3.1 million for the first quarter of 2013 growing by 25% compared to the same period of last year, at earnings per share of 1.69 Fils, whereas operating profits recorded KD 7 million.
Mahmoud Y. Al-Fulaij, the Chairman of Boubyan Bank said: “The results of the first quarter represent a good beginning for year 2013 despite the relatively unfavorable operational environment and the difficulties that the banking sector is still encountering and the strong competition among banks.”
“The results achieved in the first quarter are continuation of the Bank’s successful march since 2010, in which it started implementing the new strategy and returning to the core banking activities, which enabled it regain profitability and distribute profits to shareholders,” added Al-Fulaij.
Al-Fulaij pointed out that within a short period, namely since the strategic changes witnessed in year 2009, as mainly represented in the entry of National Bank of Kuwait “NBK” as a major shareholder, the Bank managed to prove its competitiveness in the Islamic products and services market, which has been witnessing continuous growth in terms of customers’ interest.
Al-Fulaij referred to the Bank’s suc- cess in realizing many of the objectives of its strategy set for the period from 2010 to 2014, which is based on expanding the business base and focusing on banking activities including products, services and finance solutions catering to all retail and corporate needs, while ensuring preservation of asset quality, effectiveness of credit risk management policy and continuing to adopt the conservative policy in taking provisions.
On his part, the Vice-Chairman of Boubyan Bank, Adel Abdul-Wahab AlMajed presented some of the key positive indicators in the Bank’s financial results including the increase in financing income to KD 14.2 million by the end of the first quarter of this year compared to KD 11.8 million for the same period of 2012; growing by 21%, in addition to the increase of customers’ deposits to KD 1.5 billion compared to KD 1.3 billion; boosting by 19%.
Total assets of the Bank increased, at the end of March 2013, to around KD 2 billion compared to KD 1.6 billion in March 2012, growing by 22%. Total shareholders’ equity increased to KD 260 million compared to KD 249 million; giving rise to a Capital Adequacy Ratio of 23.9%.
Al-Majed added that positive indicators also included an increase in financing portfolio to KD 1.3 billion by the end of last March compared to KD 1.1 billion; boosting by 21% in addition to the continuous increase of the Bank’s customer base.
Strategy
On the other hand, Al-Majed emphasized that the Bank continues to implement its Five-Year Strategy (2010-2014) started three years ago, which aims at more expansion in the Kuwaiti market through retail and corporate products and services. During the next two years, the Bank will continue implementation of this strategy in addition to adoption of the new strategy to be implemented during the period from 2015 to 2020 entitled “2020 Strategy.”
“In addition, we take into consideration the operational conditions, which are undoubtedly impacted by the local, regional and international changes, as seen during the two years of 2011 and 2012, in which we witnessed difficult operational conditions in the aftermath of the developments and changes occurring in some countries in the region. However, generally speaking, we have an optimistic outlook stemming from our competitiveness, our being part of NBK Group as well as our optimistic belief that local and regional conditions will improve,” added Al-Majed.
Al-Majed also highlighted the Bank’s local expansion saying: “The target we have set since 2010 is reaching 30 branches by the end of 2014, a number that is within reach now considering that it reached 22 branches by the end of 2012, and that we are planning to open from 6 to 7 branches during 2013, almost all of them are in densely populated residential areas to be always close to our customers. This means that by the end of 2014, we will have exceeded our pre-set target.”
Concluding his statements, Al-Majed noted the Bank’s achievements realized during the first quarter of this year as represented in winning 6 regional and international awards including: Best Islamic Bank in Kuwait for Customer Service for the third year in a row from “Service Hero”, Best Social Responsible Bank in Kuwait from Tatweej Academy and Best Islamic Fund from “The Banker Middle East Magazine”.