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Kipco profit driven by banking unit

Kuwait Projects Company (Kipco) said first-quarter net profit, excluding the sale of Kuwaiti telecom Wataniya, doubled and it was on track to attain its full-year income goal.

Net profit for the three months ended March 31 came in at 30 million dinars ($112.8 million), driven by a 9% profit growth of its unit Burgan Bank, the country's biggest investment firm said in a statement on Saturday.
Kipco was on track to achieve its 2008 net profit goal of 105 million dinars to 110 million dinars, spokesman Rob Hipkins told newswire Reuters.

Chief Executive Faisal Al-Ayyar said in the statement he expects this year to be a "record year".

Kipco, which owns stakes in 50 companies and operates in 21 countries, had led a consortium selling Wataniya to Qatari telecom Qtel in the first quarter last year, bolstering its net profit to 381.5 million dinars.

Excluding that sale net profit was 15 million dinars.

Earnings per share for the first quarter was 27 fils and total revenues increased to 135 million dinars from 78 million dinars in the year-earlier period, Kipco said. Total assets advanced by 9.5% to 4.6 billion dinars, it added.

Kipco had also forecast paying a dividend of between 70 fils and 80 fils this year, compared with 90 fils last year.

Kipco wants to expand into regional markets from Saudi Arabia to Algeria by investing in financial services firms or boosting stakes in existing operations, Al-Ayyar said last month.

Last year, Kipco raised its holdings in Kuwaiti lender Burgan Bank, Bahrain's United Gulf Bank and insurer Gulf Insurance. (Reuters)

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