Barwa Bank, a leading Shari’ah-compliant service provider in Qatar, has posted a net profit of QR209 million ($57.3 million) for the first quarter of 2015, as against QR 201 million for the same period last year, marking an increase of four per cent.

Total assets jumped by 24 per cent year-on-year to reach QR40.5 billion, while the bank’s financing portfolio registered an increase of 22 per cent to exceed QR 25.1 billion.

Customer deposits also strongly stands at QR21.1 billion, while earnings per share rose from QR0.66 in the first quarter of 2014 to QR0.70 in Q1 2015.

Sheikh Mohamad bin Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, chairman at Barwa Bank Group, said: “While the region’s economic and financial landscape is undergoing transformative changes that are reshaping our sector, we’ve seen this dynamic environment positively challenge our drive and determination to grow and expand our presence in the Qatari market and beyond.

 “Our performance in the first quarter of 2015 is a reflection of this focused growth strategy; while several landmark deals and partnerships that we had closed in 2014 offered us a head-start into this year, our Q1 results demonstrate Barwa Bank’s commitment to long-term, carefully studied and cautiously progressive growth to both our group and our key stakeholders,” he added.

Khalid Yousef Al-Subeai, acting Group CEO added: “Underlining our growth strategy over the past few years and going forward is an uncompromising stance on strong profitability and solid revenue stream.”

“We’ve poured focused and great efforts and investments into ensuring that our growth and expansion would not be at the expense of our P&L balances.

“Our revenues increased by 6 per cent and our expenses were reduced by 4 per cent during the first quarter of this year, bringing our cost-revenue ratio down to 38 per cent from 42 per cent in 2014.

In parallel, our non-performing assets accounted for 1.6 per cent of the total financing portfolio, down from 1.9 per cent for the same period in 2014. As we continue to undertake ambitious projects and expansion plans, our priority remains on maintaining a healthy growth trajectory with long-term, solid prospects,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service