Securities and Investment Company (SICO), a Bahrain-based conventional wholesale bank, has reported a strong start to the current fiscal year.

Net profit for the first quarter increased by 157 per cent to BD2.6 million ($6.89 million) compared with BD1 million for the corresponding period last year, with earnings per share rising 156 per cent to 6.01 fils from 2.35 fils earlier, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

The operating income grew by 89 per cent to BD4.23 million from BD2.24 million, while total expenses increased to BD1.49 million from BD1.16 million.

Brokerage and other income increased by 223 per cent to BD742,000 from BD230,000, reflecting the continued buoyant performance of regional equity and fixed income markets during the first quarter.

Net investment income rose to BD2.45 million from BD1.13 million, which translates into an increase of 117 per cent.

Fee and commission income and net interest income also grew to BD721,000 from BD564,000 earlier and BD319,000 from BD315,000 respectively.

As on March 31, assets under management were BD330.58 million as against BD316.91 million at the end of December last year, underlining the continued strong performance by SICO's asset management business.

Assets under custody by the bank's wholly-owned subsidiary - SICO Funds Services Company (SFS) - increased to BD1.31 billion compared with BD1.26 billion at the end of last year.

Total balance sheet footings at the end of March stood at BD93.48 million (BD94.19 million last year end).

The bank continued to maintain a strong capital base, ending the first quarter with BD60.99 million in shareholders' equity after adjusting for last years' dividends (BD61.86 million as of end last year).

The balance sheet remains highly liquid, with consolidated capital adequacy ratio of 63.34 per cent.

Available-for-sale investments at the quarter-end were BD29.29 million as against BD32.74 million at end of last year, while investments at fair value through profit or loss were BD18.62 million as against BD19.81 million at end of last year.

A significant amount of SICO's market risk exposure continues to be in short duration investment-rated and GCC government fixed income instruments.

"This quarter, we generated higher year-on-year revenues in all of our business lines," SICO chief executive Najla Al Shirawi said.

"Following our successful performance last year, this illustrates that we are bearing the fruits of all our hard work during the market downturn, where we have remained focused on strengthening our infrastructure and improving our services, while maintaining our resilient performance track record.

"Based on this strong start, and with a highly professional and determined management team in place, we are well positioned to take advantage of favourable regional capital market conditions and an improving global economic environment.

"Given that the current positive and robust market momentum continues without any cyclical downturn due to valuations being stretched in regional or international markets, we remain confidently optimistic about the short- and medium-term outlook for SICO," Al Shirawi added.-TradeArabia News Service