Albaraka Banking Group (ABG) has decided to increase its issued and paid-up capital by $46.5 million and also approved the distribution of cash dividends for last year amounting to $27.9 million.

The bank will transfer $46.5 million to the capital by issuing bonus shares to shareholders at the rate of one share for every 15 held, said a ABG official at an extraordinary general meeting in Manama on Saturday.

The ordinary meeting approved distribution of cash dividends for last year amounting to $27.9 million, representing four cents per share or four per cent of the issued capital. it also approved the issuance of bonus shares representing 6.67 per cent of the issued capital.

The group's shareholders discussed the reports submitted by the board of directors, the Unified Sharia Supervisory Board and the auditors for last year. They also approved final accounts of the group for the year ended on December 31.

The directors later held a board meeting to implement the recommendations and resolutions of the ordinary and extraordinary general meetings.

'The group continued its strong performance last year, which witnessed significant enhancements to the financial, human and technological resources in accordance with unified and co-ordinated plans and strategies for the group and its subsidiary units and which enabled us to achieve strong growth in earnings and income-generating assets,' ABG chairman Shaikh Saleh Abdulla Kamel said.

'All of our subsidiary banks, with no exception, contributed to achieving this growth after we enhanced their capital resources, restructured certain banking units and activities, expanded our geographical presence and introduced many modern banking technologies,' he said.

ABG deputy chairman Abdulla Ammar Al Saudi, who chaired the meetings, said: 'We are pleased to see the group's ability to continue to build on the remarkable successes through achieving excellent profits, whilst at the same time continue its persistent efforts to implement ambitious plans for expanding operations and activities in existing and new markets.'

'Thanks to the Islamic approach that it follows in handling its financial operations, the group was not directly affected by the adverse consequences of the current financial crisis. This proves the soundness of the long-term and short-term strategies and operations of the group,' he said.

ABG president and chief executive Adnan Ahmed Yousif said that the excellent financial results achieved by the Group in 2008 were the early fruit of the group's new five-year strategy for the years 2008-2012.

'The year 2008 was full of outstanding achievements and initiatives that translated this strategy to real successes on the ground despite the severe negative developments that the international markets went through and the slowing down of the performance of the global economy.'

'This once more proves the ability of ABG to overcome the adverse effects of such developments and achieve positive results,' Yousif said.

The financial results of the group show that it achieved an increase of 37.1 per cent in net profit, before accounting for the extraordinary profits from the IPO of the group's unit in Turkey.

This reflects the noticeable improvements seen in all sources of income, which raised the net operating income to 45.5 per cent while continuing to achieve growth in assets by 8.1 per cent, deposits and investment accounts by 9.7pc and financing and investment operations by 9.5 per cent, according to a statement issued by the group.

The group's operating income increased to $585.87 million, compared to $444.4 million  in 2007, reflecting an increase of 31.8 per cent.

After deducting expenses, the total net income amounted to $201 million, reflecting an increase of 37.1 per cent over the<