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Commercialbank earns QR158.7 million profit

A dividend of 25 per cent of the issued capital, or QR59.3 million, and a one for four bonus share issue is to be recommended at the bank's AGM on March 23rd. The Bank's total assets exceed QR 6 billion. It has a total of sixteen branches or sales offices in the country, thirty seven ATM machines, six deposit machines, and operates an Internet Home Banking service. It also holds exclusive franchise rights for Diners Club International in Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Iran and Yemen.

Chairman, Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Attiyah, said the figures represent the 35th year of profitable operations for the bank. Managing director, Hussein Alfardan, added: "During the past year, the Bank has taken a forward view of building a larger, more diversified and robust risk asset portfolio. Any debt below the Bank's minimum standard credit risk criteria was re-classified. In consequence, an amount of QR75.3 million was placed to a provision account for possible future losses, and QR19 million was placed to interest in suspense."

It was also revealed that while Interest Income actually fell by 4.1 per cent to QR315.2 million, Commercialbank was able to reduce interest expense by 46.3 per cent to QR91.3 million in 2002.

Other income rose by 4.6 per cent to QR136.9 million, "on the back of some impressive returns on the Bank's investment portfolio," said Alfardan. Operating Expenses (net of provisions), he said, "rose by 14.5. per cent to QR118.5 million, the net profit translating into basic earnings per share of QR6.69 in 2002, up from QR5.11 the previous year."