Kuwait Finance House (KFH) CEO Mohammed Al-Omar mentioned during an interview with Najwa Asran from CNBC Arabia, that KFH net profit in 2012 is KD 88 million, which is 10% more than last year. Total revenues of KFH Group reached KD 1 billion, and KD 437 million of them were generated from Kuwait. He noted that the profits exceeded all expectations, despite local and global market circumstances. However, he stressed that such success is considered to be the fruits of the new strategy and restructuring plan that positively affected numerous important financial indicators. Assets increased by 9% to exceed KD 14 billion, while the growth of KFH Group deposits increased by 6%. The budget witnessed an increase in returns on shareholders’ equity by 8%, and net profit increased by 9%. Earnings per share increased by 10%, and the increase in total revenues reached 7%.
He added that KFH pumps KD 178 million in profits into the market, compared to KD 152 million last year. This underlines the bank’s successful new strategy. He went on to say that the bank’s dividends are good and within the range of KFH’s set plans. KFH had announced to its clients cash dividends by 10%, while dividends on deposits, which are the highest in the market, were as follows: 2.147% for five year deposit, 1.932% for continuous investment deposits, 1.503% for Sudra deposit, and 1.288% for investment saving accounts. Provisions dropped to reach KD 255 million compared to KD 231 million last year, while the group’s bad loans dropped from 9.4% to 5.7%. Regarding KFH Kuwait, bad loans dropped to 5.4%, while ratio of expenses to revenues dropped from 78% in 2011 to 68% in 2012.
Concerning development projects in Kuwait, Al-Omar expressed his optimism that the government and the National Assembly are keen to achieve progress ; especially that there are important issues that must be solved, such as housing, since the number of housing requests reached 100,000, which is a high number.
Al-Omar stated that KFH will continue to expand globally to seize the best investment opportunities, and added that KFH achieved 14% growth in retail sector, while the revenues of its overseas banks increased noticeably. KFH-Malaysia’s assets, revenues and operative profits increased, while KFH-Turkey achieved an increase in revenues by 40%. The revenues of subsidiary banks in general increased by 19%.