Bahrain-based Capinnova Investment Bank, the Shari’a compliant investment banking arm of BBK, has registered a full year net profit of $2.5 million for 2011 compared to a net loss of $203,000 the year before.

Announcing the third quarter results on Tuesday, Capinnova said its net profit for the 3 months ended December 31, 2011 hit $86,000 compared to a net loss of $2 million the previous year.

The gross revenue for the fourth quarter was $1.8 million in comparison to net loss $246,000 for the same period in 2010, the bank said in a statement.

The bank's gross revenue for the period surged to $9.2 million from $6.9 million for the same period the year before, thus posting a 32 per cent growth, it added.

Commenting on the results, chairman Abdul Kareem Bucheery said: 'We are delighted to have reported profits and increased our gross revenue that reflects a 32 per cent growth over the previous year. This is a good achievement given the backdrop of such challenging conditions across the globe and the region.'

'We strongly believe that the Islamic banking industry in Bahrain is one of the important sectors in the country with an array of opportunities that are yet to be exploited,' he remarked.

'We will continue to capitalise on these opportunities in 2012 and the following years by introducing good Islamic banking products that meet our investors requirements and expectations,' he added.

CEO Jamal Hijres said Capinnova’s liquidity ratio stood at a remarkable 37 per cent given the current market conditions.

'Furthermore, as per the CBB prudential requirements, banks are required to shore up their capital adequacy ratios and maintain equity capital at 12 per cent of risk-weighted assets.'

'However, our capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stands at 86.2 per cent and this would help the bank in maintaining high growth rate in the following years,' Hijres stated.

'We are committed to achieve better results to satisfy our investors and shareholders by following our structured investment methodology which was designed based on the rapidly evolving market conditions,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service