Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has earned a net profit of QR1.13bn in nine months up to September, up 16% on the same period last year.
The total assets of Qatar’s leading Islamic bank stood at QR93.3bn in September, which shows a 29% increase compared to the same period last year.
Financing activities, which remain the key growth driver, have reached QR 59bn in the third quarter, up 35% on September, 2013, and 25% on December 2013.
Customer deposits have risen to QR64bn in September, up 41% on the same period last year and 28% on December 2013, allowing the bank to significantly improve its liquidity position and achieve a strong financing-to-deposit ratio of 91%.
Total shareholders’ equity reached QR12bn, an increase of 4%, compared to September 2013. Earnings per share (EPS) reached QR4.8 compared with QR4.1 in September 2013.
QIB’s total income amounted to QR2.7bn, representing an increase of 15%, compared to September 2013. Income from financing activities reached QR1.8bn in September 2014, up 23% on the same period last year.
The bank’s net commission and fees income has also registered “strong growth” to reach QR289mn for the nine-month period that ended in September, up 40% on the same period in 2013.
QIB was able to maintain the ratio of non-performing financing assets to total financing assets at 0.9%, one of the lowest in the industry, reflecting the quality of the bank’s financing assets portfolio and its effective risk management framework.
QIB continues to pursue the conservative impairment policy with the coverage ratio for non-performing financing assets reaching 101% as of September 2014.
International credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has reaffirmed QIB’s Counterparty Credit Rating at “A-“with a stable outlook.
Similarly, Capital Intelligence (CI) has reaffirmed QIB’s Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of ‘A’, with an upgraded ‘Stable’ outlook in view of the significant improvement in financing asset quality and stabilised return on average assets. Fitch has affirmed for the fourth year the bank’s long term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of ‘A’ with a stable outlook.
QIB received a number of prestigious awards this year, reflecting the results and achievements of the businesses, including the title of ‘Best Islamic Bank in Qatar’, which the bank got from Euromoney, The Banker, World Finance, Qatari Enterprise Agility Awards and Islamic Finance News (IFN).
World Finance also named QIB as ‘The Best SME Islamic finance provider’; while Global Finance voted QIB as the ‘Safest Islamic bank in Qatar’. In addition, QIB was recently named ‘Contractor financing bank of the year’ during the second Qatar Contractors Forum.
Meanwhile, Islamic Finance News (IFN) named QIB as both the ‘Arranger of the syndicated deal of the year’ for its Ijarah facility; and ‘Arranger in the Tawarruq deal of the year’ for its Murabahah Facility.