Bahrain-based National Finance House (NFH) posted a strong overall financial and operational performance last year, with net profit increasing by 17 per cent to BD841,200 ($2.2 million) compared with BD721,900 in 2012.

The company has announced a cash dividend of five per cent of the company's paid-up share capital, amounting to BD375,000, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

"Total operating income grew by 11 per cent to BD2.79 million compared with BD2.51 million the previous year,” said Farouk Almoayyed, chairman of NFH.

Almoayyed added that during last year total operating expenses rose to BD1.96 million compared with BD1.79 million in 2012, including very conservative provisions of BD575,700 compared with BD550,600 in 2012 against impairment on loans to customers.

"For the fourth quarter of last year, NFH reported a net profit of BD180,000 compared with BD148,000 for the same period of previous year.

"Total assets had grown to BD43.66 million, compared with BD40.29 million in 2012. Shareholders' equity stood at BD11.82 million compared with BD11.36 million in 2012," he said.

Almoayyed said the fact that the company has been able to produce consistent growth indicates its strong position and reflects its commitment to serve all its stakeholders.

"During last year, NFH focused on vehicle financing and further built on the positive relationship with all the car dealers which resulted in highest amount of financing since the inception of the company.

"The company also managed to keep its liquidity and funding positions at very comfortable levels," he said.

Chief executive Venkatachalam P S attributed the strong financial performance to the continuous investment toward improving both the quality and scope of service provided to its customers underlined by its policy to adopt a conservative lending approach while maintaining portfolio quality, and to control expenses.

"NFH is continuing to work towards realising the board's vision of becoming the provider-of-choice for auto financing solutions," Mr Venkatachalam said.

"In line with this a number of strategic initiatives were implemented throughout last year which contributed to strengthening NFH's relationship with its customers and enabled it to achieve excellent results.

"The company made excellent progress in finalising preparations for the implementation of a new core banking system in mid-2014.

"The new system will integrate, centralise and automate all aspects of the business, both front and back office, and provide measurable benefits in accuracy, control, security and speed of processing.

"The company also continued to invest in staff training and development; and provide promising career opportunities for Bahraini nationals, who now comprise 95.6 per cent of the workforce," he said. – TradeArabia News Service