KUWAIT CITY: Global Investment House (“Global” or the “Company”) announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015. During Q1 2015, the Company recorded a net profit of KD 1.8 million ($5.9 million) and fee revenues of KD 3.6 million ($11.8 million) reflecting a 5.7% growth over the quarter ended March 31, 2014.
The Asset Management business remained resilient with KD 1.2 billion of assets under management. Several funds managed by Global outperformed their respective indices and peers. The Company’s KD 12.0 million ($39.9 million) co-investments in managed funds generated a KD 0.3 million ($0.9 million) mark-to-market loss (Q1 2014: valuation gains of KD 0.8 million) primarily due to decline in certain markets.
On the brokerage front, Global made focused efforts to grow the institutional brokerage business leading to gains in Kuwait market share. However, due to decline in market turnover in most markets where Global operates, brokerage revenues marginally declined to KD 0.5 million ($1.5 million) in Q1 2015.
Global has a healthy capital structure, conservatively deployed primarily in liquid and operating assets with no external debt and a capital base of KD 89.6 million ($297.8 million). The Company’s board of directors has proposed a 5% cash dividend (KD 3.9 million) for the 2014 fiscal year subject to the approval by the shareholders and to be distributed following the conclusion of the annual general meeting.
During Q1 2015, Global entered into an agreement with National Bank of Umm Al Quwain (NBQ), thereby bringing to an end a long pending legal dispute relating to recovery of a $250 million deposit from the Bank. This settlement will have no impact on the Company’s cash flows or income streams.
Since the beginning of the year, the company has been preparing the required documents to list its shares on Kuwait Stock Exchange and has filed the application on April 30, 2015.
Commenting on the results, the company’s Chairman, Ibrahim Saad said: “We are pleased by these results following the company’s excellent performance in 2014 and the declaration of cash dividend to shareholders. We are committed to further strengthen the company’s financial position and add value to our shareholders such as listing the company shares on Kuwait Stock Exchange.”
Maha Al-Ghunaim, Vice Chairman & Group CEO said: “The growth in fee-based revenues is a testament to the success of the company’s strategy to focus on its fee generating businesses and a reaffirmation of our strong belief that the Company is on the path of sustainable profitability.”
