BBK ’12 net profit up 33%

The Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) posted a net profit of BD42.4 million in financial year 2012, an enhancement of 33 per cent over the 2011 net profit of BD31.8 million, said the BBK Chief Executive Officer Abdulkarim Bucheery. The figure compares favourably with net profit of BD27.1 million in 2008. The bank assigned 20 per cent of the profits, BD8.4 million, to cash dividends. Stock dividends were assigned BD8.5 million, accounting for 20 per cent of the pie.The achievement, he said, was driven by a 12 per cent growth in net interest income, which touched BD65.8 million over its 2011 figure of BD58.9 million. The figure also compares favourably compared with BD53.6 million of 2008. The net fees and commission income of the bank rose 15 per cent to BD29.0 million from its 2011 earning of BD25.3 million, which again is a favourable earning over BD22 million.The bank’s total assets touched BD3,108 million, a 12 per cent hike over 2011 figure of BD2,765 million. Comparative assets for 2008 is BD2,166 million. The customer deposit in 2012 was BD2,205 million, a six per cent increase over deposit of BD2,076 in 2011. Comparative customer deposit for 2008 was BD1,337 million. The bank also experienced a 22 per cent growth in equity. In 2012 the bank equity stood at BD290 million. In 2011 the equity slid to BD238 million from BD241 million in 2010. In 2008 the comparative figure was BD209 million.BBK assigned BD4.2 million to general reserve, which accounts for 10 per cent of the profits. It transferred a massive 47 per cent of profits measuring BD20.0 million to retained earnings. For the year 2012 the bank was granted a new licence by the Reserve Bank of India to open its third branch at Aluva in Kochi, the financial capital of the south Indian state of Kerala. It also entered into partnerships with Geogit in Kuwait and the Invita call centre in Kuwait. The bank is also looking to expand further in North India with a fourth licence, said the chairman of the bank Murad Ali Murad. He told the Bahrain News Agency that the permission of the Reserve Bank of India was awaited. About the plans to grow in India, the chairman said that the bank was in India to serve the trade between the two nations, serving the historic relations between the two countries. There is also a need to serve the non-resident Indian living in Bahrain and in Kuwait both in these countries and also serve their interest when they are back in India. The third is that India is a very large market. There are always opportunities for lending and providing facilities. We would like to finance those areas.The bank also saw a high growth of 10 per cent in corporate assets, through the focus on trading and manufacturing sectors as well as government project financing. Corporate and transactional banking resulted in significant contribution to net profit by 34 per cent. Total revenue growth was 17 per cent. The corporate and transactional banking resulted in capitalizing on trade flows between India and the GCC.Asked about the bank’s corporate governance the CEO said that an enhancement in corporate governance is marked by the newly formed risk committee established in 2012 to review and recommend the risk policies and other risk related issues to the Board.On the sidelines the CEO said that the Al Wajaha services received favourable response. The number of members has been increasing every month. The plan now is to move into the second segment of priority banking by lowering the requirement so that the tier-two Wajaha is launched in about three to four months. As its strategy to reach the common man the bank the CEO said that it was planned to start new branches in Hidd and in the City Centre.He said the bank also looked to enhancing the capital to meet the Basel III requirements.The chairman added that the assignment of more funds to the general reserves and retained earning was aimed at strengthening the bank’s capital and also to meet any future requirement. Strong cash reserves are required to meet the Basel III requirements which are expected to be implemented in 2013. There are certain weightages given to risks. The bank, he said, is over BD3.1 billion strong. More funds are required to open more branches in India and to expand in other parts.The bank will look at increasing efficiencies towards growth in 2013