Barwa Bank Posts QAR412 million in H1

Doha, August 01 (QNA) - Barwa Bank registered a net profit of QAR412 million in H1, while earnings per share rose to QAR1.39 compared with QAR1.38 over the corresponding period in 2014. It has registered a record 16 per cent jump in its total assets for the first half of the year, hitting QAR41.3 billion with a 10 per cent increase in financing assets alone to exceed QAR24.4 billion. Owing to Barwa Banks strong focus on product and service development and integration across business segments, as well as to a heavy push on tech-driven innovation, customer deposits posted equally impressive results for the first half of 2015, increasing by 4 per cent to stand at QAR 23.2 billion. On this occasion, HE Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani, Chairman of Barwa Bank Group, said the banking sector witnessed last year, a wide range of challenges, and despite the decline in oil prices, which led to a decline in some budgets government and private sector financial institutions were urged to focus re-investments on promising non-oil sectors. He added that the banking sector in Qatar was not isolated from that environment, but it has a driving force to support economic growth on a strong and diversified manner to keep pace with the Qatar National Vision 2030. For his part, Acting Group Chief Executive Officer, Barwa Bank Group, Khalid Yousef Al-Subeai, said: "The groups results in the first half of 2015 lay on solid foundations that have been driving our performance and track record over the past years. Our strategy remains focused on operational efficiency, process streamlining, integration and crossover of our core banking products and services." "Nowhere has this strategy been more evident than in the first half-year results; resulting in increase in the total revenue by 7 per cent in 2014, bringing cost to revenue ratio down to 39 per cent from 40 per cent, making, in parallel, a major push on the collection of non-performing assets, which shrunk to 1.6 per cent of the total financing assets, compared with 1.8 per cent as at the end of 2014. We will continue to drive profitability and efficiency across our operations as Qatar ushers in a new era of infrastructural investments. We see in this transitional period ample prospects and opportunities for our business, and equally great returns for our stakeholders," he added. (QNA)