(The Group Comment): QNB 2019 Net Profits Rises by 4% to QAR 14.4 Billion

Net Profits: Net profits for 2019, free of interest on tier 1 capital, amounted QAR 13.351 billion compared to QAR 13.255 billion for 2018, an increase of 0.72%. Earnings per share for the year amounted QAR 1.445 compared to QAR 1.435 of 2018.

Comprehensive Income: The comprehensive income statements shows that the Bank has recorded valuation losses of QAR 973.5 million versus valuation losses of QAR 4.05 billion for 2018. This valuation loss is mainly ascribed to the impairment of the fair value of in cash hedging in addition to losses from valuation of investments in associated companies, an amount of QAR 420.58 million.

Operational revenues: Bank’s operational income increased by 4.9% (QAR1.17 billion) to amount QAR 25.23 billion, an improvement attributed to the increase in net fee income by 6.1% (QAR1.16 billion).

Operational expenses: 2019 operational expenses has increased by 4.8% (QAR 462 million) compared to 2018. This rise is resulted from an increased expense of projected credit losses for loans and advances by QAR 136 million, in addition to losses from decreased financial instruments by QAR 140 million, knowing that the bank has recorded profits of QAR 48 million from this item.

Loans and deposits: loans portfolio has grown by 10.0% over the year which is an approach ratio of growth in customer deposits which has increased by 10.3% causing loans to deposits ratio to settle at 99.2%. Regarding the non-performing loans, it stood at nearly 1.9% of total loans.

Distributions and market shares: The Board of Directors recommended to the shareholders’ assembly general meeting to distribute dividends at 60% of the share nominal value in cash, a 42% of the year’s net profits. The Bank’s share is traded at a multiple of nearly 14.53 times.