Kuwait Finance Q1 falls 11%

Kuwait Finance House, the country’s biggest Islamic lender, posted an 11 percent decline in first-quarter profit. Net income dropped to KWD20.1m (US$72.5m) from KWD22.6m a year earlier, according to a statement to the Kuwait Stock Exchange today. EFG-Hermes Holding SAE forecast profit at KWD24m, while Global Investment House KSCC estimated it at KWD17.9m, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The bank announced last month that it would shuffle its top management and work with advisors to sell, merge or restructure unprofitable subsidiaries, state news agency KUNA quoted the bank's chief executive as saying. It quoted Mohammed Omar as telling shareholders on Monday that KFH's restructuring would require executive appointments that had approval from KFH's board and were now awaiting approval from the central bank. The lender, whose 2011 profits dropped 24 percent year-on-year as it set aside money to cover losses on investments, said in a statement to the Kuwaiti exchange on Tuesday that it would distribute a dividend of 15 fils per share for 2011. In November, Kuwait's Alrai newspaper said Saudi Al Rajhi Bank had begun preliminary talks with private and public sector stock owners of KFH on buying an "influential share".