It posted strong growth in earnings recorded in the first quarter and rewarded its shareholders with a year-on-year growth of 240 percent for the first half of this year, it was announced here.
Dr. Fuad Al Omar, chairman of GFH, commented: “The consistency of GFH’s enhanced performance is highly encouraging to both its Board of Directors and shareholders. The bank is benefiting from a healthy pipeline of prestigious projects that have proved to be very attractive to our clients.”
“The management team continues to display great talent for innovation and credit must be given to them for their origination skills. It has been a very exciting year so far and there is much more good news to come. We would also like to place on record our sincere appreciation of the efforts and continued support of the Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA),” he added.
GFH was listed on the Bahrain and Kuwait stock exchanges in January 2004. With the majority of the shareholders being major financial institutions, GFH has carved out a niche as a leading Islamic investment bank with a reputation for leading the industry, both in terms of the innovative nature of its projects and products, and in terms of the quality of its management.
Referring to the performance, Esam Janahi, chief executive officer of GFH, said: “Our success is built on the support of our clients and our reputation is very important to us. We listen to our clients and seek to deliver their requirements. Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH), Al Areen Desert Spa and Resort, our Al-Andalus project in Spain, to name but a few, are projects of prestige and quality that appeal to our clients.”
He also noted that the investment bank’s ongoing regional expansion has seen GFH taking a significant stake in the Al Batinah Development and Investment Holding Company in the Sultanate of Oman, in cooperation with strategic partners from the Gulf region. GFH has also signed an MoU with the Dubai Development and Investment Authority (DDIA), proposing to co-promote the Arabian Legends theme park in Dubailand in the UAE.
Commenting on the challenge of continuing this level of performance into the future, Janahi said: “Maintaining this high level of momentum is undoubtedly challenging. However, we have already identified a stream of investment banking income that will see us through to the end of the year and beyond. Our business is growing on the back of a successful business model.”
In order to sustain our continuing growth, we are reorganizing many aspects of the bank’s operations and investing significant sums in new offices, new professional staff, and new information technology systems, he added.
GFH more than doubled its net worth to $215 million as of June 30, 2004, as a result of a capital increase in January and the growth in earnings since then.
