Commercial Bank of Qatar sees 40% rise in net profit, Q1 2009

Q1 PROFITS: Qatar's largest privates sector bank posts healthy Q1 profits.

Commercial Bank of Qatar, the largest private sector bank in the country, has posted a 40 percent increase in year on year net profit for Q1, 2009, it was revealed on Monday.

Figures from the bank’s financial report show that it made QR610m net profit in the first quarter, up from QR436m in Q1 2008.

However, QR165m if the profit came from the completion of the sale of property assets, the bank said. 

Other results show that lending to customers slowed to a minimal growth of 2.8 percent, from QR33.9bn to QR34.8bn, between Q4 2008 and Q1 2009.

The bank had achieved this growth by focusing on attracting new high quality borrows to help meet the bank’s undrawn commitments to existing customers, it said.

Customer deposits reduced by 4.7 percent, from QR32.2bn to QR30.7bn, in line with a contraction in the overall deposit market, during the same time period, it added.  

Meanwhile, during the first quarter the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) completed the first stage of a subscription process in the bank’s share capital, investing QR807m which represented five percent of the its share capital.

The second stage of the QIA subscription is expected to take place in December 2009 at the same rate of five percent.

Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al Attiyah, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Commercialbank said: "In a challenging trading environment, Commercialbank has delivered a strong set of financial results for the first quarter of the year.  

“Risk management is embedded at the centre of our business strategy and it has enabled the bank to position itself appropriately for what will be another challenging year in local and regional banking markets,” he added.

Other Key financial highlights compared with first quarter 2008
•    Operating income up 46% from QR571m  to QR836m
•    Higher earnings per share of QR2.89 up from QR2.40
•    Total assets increased by 30% to QR63.5bn from QR48.8bn
•    Customer loans grew 27% to QR34.8bn from QR 27.4bn
•    Customers’ deposits up 8% to QR30.7bn from QR28.4bn
•    Shareholders’ equity  rose by 68% to QR10.1bn from QR6.0bn

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