Jadwa Investment, a Shariah-compliant investment bank in Saudi, has reported revenues of more than SR284 million ($76 million) for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2012, up 10 per cent over the same period the year before.

The Islamic lender also realised a net income of SR144 million for the same period. The Saudi bank's board of directors have recommended dividends at SR1.5 per share, said a statement from the bank.

The shareholders’ equity increased to more than SR1.35 billion, equal to SR23.75 per share, up from SR10 per share at the time of Jadwa’s founding in 2006, it added.

Announcing the results, managing director and CEO Ahmed Al-Khateeb said: "Despite the economic and political challenges of 2012, Jadwa Investment continues to deliver strong results for our clients and our shareholders. We are very pleased to achieve record profitability in 2012, thanks to the excellent performance of each our business lines."

"Our major investment in building our Asset Management capability since our launch in 2006 has contributed directly to realizing consistently strong risk adjusted returns for our clients, and has earned us the second highest manager quality ranking from Moody’s for the second year in a row," he noted.

Furthermore, Jadwa’s Saudi Equity Fund performance was first amongst peers during 2012, he added.

Jadwa, he said, offers wide-ranging investment services that support both individual as well as corporate financial goals. With a proven track record in asset management, financial advisory, mergers and acquisitions, and researched brokerage, Jadwa is a comprehensive financial services firm.

Al-Khateeb said, "In our private equity business, we have invested in excess of SR1 billion into two new portfolio companies last year, and are seeing strong performance across all six of our portfolio companies. In our investment banking business, we closed several advisory mandates and hit record revenues for the year."

"Across all products, Assets Under Management grew SR3 billion during the year to reach a total of SR11 billion," he added.-TradeArabia News Service