(The Group’s Comment) Qatar First Bank Net Losses Reduced to QAR 299.79 Million in the 3^rd Quarter 2019

Ø  Profits/Losses: The Bank recorded losses of QAR 299.79 million for the 9 months ended 30 September 2019 compared to losses of QAR 425.54 million for the equivalent period last year 2018 reflecting a reduction in the losses by 29.5%. Losses per share amounted QAR 0.150 versus QAR 0.213 losses per share for the equivalent period last year. The Bank, in the 3^rd quarter 2019 recorded a profit of QAR 1.55 million versus loss of QAR 71.67 million for the similar quarter 2018. The achievement of profits in the 3^rd quarter is mainly attributed to the reversal of QAR 13.0 million provision associated with financing assets to revenues compared to a provision avoided for the same item of equivalent period revenues of QAR 8.5 million.

Ø  Total Income: amounted at the end of the period QAR 29.97 million compared to negative deficit of QAR 242.9 million for the equivalent period last year 2018. The financial statements of the equivalent period included losses from valuation of financial investments of QAR 198.0 million where such losses were reduced in this period to QAR 47.0 million. Moreover, the losses from sale of investments were reduced to QAR 0.8 million compared to losses of QAR 111.0 million for the same period 2018.

Ø  Provision against the decline of the financing assets: This item represents the anticipated losses in the irregular financing assets which is an expense avoided from the profits of period. The bank has provisioned QAR 173.51 million to meet the losses from the decline of the financing assets versus QAR 43.97 million of the same period last year. The Bank has further avoided an additional provision of QAR 29.97 million assigned to meet the decline in the financial assets. The bank recorded additional losses of QAR 41.7 and listed them under excluded transactions.

Ø  Cumulated losses: Article#295 of the Qatari Corporate Law of 2018 stated the following “In the event, a company’s losses reached half of its capital, the Board of Directors must invite for an Assembly General Meeting to decide on the continuity of the company of dissolving it before its term stated in the article of associations”. Consequently, the Bank’s Assembly General Meeting decided in last September to reduce the share capital by 65% to amortize the losses.

Losses amounted QAR 1.298 billion, a 64.9% of the share capital and the share book value declined to QAR 0.35.