Markaz reports strong financial performance

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) reported strong financial performance with revenues of KD15.12 million during the first nine months of 2018, an increase of 14 per cent on yearon-year basis.

Management fees and commissions increased by 36 per cent on year-on-year basis to KD6.94 million while net profit attributable to shareholders of parent company was KD4.14 million (earnings per share (EPS) of 9 fils per share) for the first nine months of 2018, at a margin of 27 per cent.

“At the outset, I am delighted to announce that our investment banking team has recently been named Best Investment Bank in Kuwait 2018 by the Global Finance Magazine. This is a reflection of the quality of our strategic advice, innovative structuring and execution capabilities delivered to our clients during the course of the year,” Manaf A. Alhajeri, CEO of Markaz, said.

For the period ended September 2018, Markaz delivered a strong and sustainable financial performance across our asset management, investment banking and principal investments. Asset management fees reached KD5.15 million up by 19 per cent and investment banking fees increased to KD1.79 million compared to the same nine month period in 2017. Principal investments delivered revenues of KD8.17 million and returns of 10 per cent on an annualised basis. As part of the company’s conservative approach to asset valuation, Markaz booked a consolidated impairment provision of KD2.75 million to reflect the current real estate cycle in some of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets. The assets under management (AUM) at the end of the quarter was up by 4.0 per cent on a year-on-year basis to KD1.06 billion.

GCC markets ended the third quarter of 2018 with generally a positive performance with Kuwait, UAE and Qatar markets delivering gains of 6.5 per cent, 4.8 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively. However, the Saudi market, holding the biggest weight in the S&P Pan Arab benchmark, declined by 2.7 per cent. With these market conditions in mind, most of the company’s active equity funds have outperformed their relative benchmark indices for the year to date. Markaz Investment and Development Fund (MIDAF) led local equity funds investing on Boursa Kuwait in terms of performance by posting returns of 19.70 per cent during the first nine months of 2018, and it was followed in second place by Markaz Mumtaz Fund, which posted returns of 11.11 per cent for the same period.

On one hand, Markaz real estate projects in the GCC region enjoy superior quality, cost, and financial discipline standards compared to their peers and the industry’s standards. Markaz was able to maintain a weighted average occupancy level of around 96.0 per cent across its portfolio of income generating properties in Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia.