Doha Bank Achieves Profit of QAR 307 Million
His Excellency Sheikh Fahad Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Doha Bank, announced Doha Bank’s financial results for the first quarter of 2019. He said that the bank achieved net profit for the first three months of 2019 at QR 307 million, and added that the bank has made significant progress in improving the cost management and efficient utilization of resources where the operating cost for the period decreased by 10.8% as compared to same period last year thus reducing the cost to income ratio to 35.7% from 37.3% showing bank’s productive operational performance.
H.E. Sheikh Fahad added that the total assets increased by QAR 2.7 billion, registering a growth of 2.9%, from QAR 93.6 billion as at 31 March 2018 to QAR 96.3 billion as at 31 March 2019. Net loans and advances stood at QAR 58.7 billion as at 31 March 2019 as compared to QAR 59.9 billion for the same period last year. Customer deposits stood at QAR 54.5 billion as at 31 March 2019 compared to 59.7 billion for the same period in 2018. H.E also pointed out that the total financial investment portfolio increased by 5.9 billion, showing a significant growth of 32.3% compared to the same period of the last year.
H.E. Sheikh Fahad highlighted that the achieved profit of QAR 307 million for this quarter as against QAR 381 million of last year same period is due to the bank’s focus on strengthening the provisions base by taking significant loan loss provision as compared to the same period last year, which enhanced the provision coverage for non-performing loans. His Excellency Sheikh Fahad expressed his satisfaction with the growth of the interest income by 3.9% as compared to the same period last year.
He added that in light of this performance, Fitch has affirmed Doha Bank’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘A’ with a ‘Stable’ outlook, which recognize Doha Bank’s sustainable business model in the current business environment.
H.E. Sheikh Abdul Rehman Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Managing Director of Doha Bank said “The total shareholder’s equity stood at QAR 12.9 billion as at 31 March 2019 from QAR 12.4 billion for the same period last year, registering a growth of 3.7%. The bank continued to strengthen its key capitalization ratios, where the total capital adequacy ratio of the bank increased to 17.1% as at 31 March 2019 from 16.6% as compared to the same period last year.
The bank, given the scale of its operations, has achieved a return on the average assets of 1.28% as at 31 March 2019”. H.E. Sheikh Abdul Rehman lauded the performance of the QE Index ETF ‘QETF’ fund, where the fund achieved a total return of 20% in 2018, outperforming most ETFs in the world. Commenting on the performance, Dr. Seetharaman Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank said, “This achievement is the culmination of untiring efforts of various parties who contributed to the QETF’s success in its first year of operations.” He further added: “we believe the QETF holds immense promise and opens a gateway to the Qatari market for global investors.”
Dr. R. Seetharaman, said, “Despite challenging market conditions, Doha Bank has been distinguished by its superior products and services, ongoing customer demand, and capitalizing on market synergies in a challenging and competitive environment.” The bank continued to successfully leverage on its international network to diversify its funding sources and expanded its exposure to key sectors. Furthermore, the bank’s top ranking of listed companies in Qatar by ESG Invest, for the second year in a row, reinforced its position as a global sustainability leader.
During the quarter, Doha Bank completed 40 years of operations – a key milestone for the institution. On this front, the bank announced a campaign for its new and existing customers by offering gold rewards. Dr. Seetharaman said, “At Doha Bank, it has been an eventful journey over the past four decades with customers focus remaining at the center of our successful operations. As part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, the bank launched this campaign as our way of thanking our loyal customers for their continued support throughout the years as well as for inspiring us to innovate new products and services in 2019.
During the quarter, Doha Bank was awarded the ‘Best Trade Finance Bank in Qatar 2019’ at the Global Finance Magazine Award ceremony and received the ‘3G Financial Services Award 2019’ at the Global Good Governance (3G) Awards function. Dr. R. Seetharaman lauded the efforts of the team and said, “Doha Bank has been at the forefront of developing leading banking solutions for our valued customers.”