DOHA: QInvest, Qatar’s leading investment group and one of the most prominent Islamic financial institutions, reported $53.7m (QR195.6m) revenue for the first half of 2015 (H1, 2015), up 40 percent compared to the H1, 2014. The net profit of QInvest surged to $24.4m (QR88.7m), up 86 percent form a year ago.
Commenting on the results Tamim Hamad Al Kawari (pictured), Chief Executive Officer of QInvest, said: “During the first half of 2015 we generated strong performance, despite the on-going volatility across global markets. Profits generated in the past six months alone exceeded those in the year 2014. We continued to source new opportunities, strengthen our brand and deliver positive returns. We also remained absolutely focused on executing our exciting pipeline of deal flow, taking advantage of our unique market position to leverage opportunities and deliver value for clients and shareholders alike.”
Despite these strong results, QInvest continues to monitor its investments carefully, given the challenges that markets still represent going forward.
During H1, 2015, all three of QInvest’s revenue-generating business lines — Investment Banking, Principal Investments and Asset Management — continued to cultivate new business and develop existing relationships.
In the Investment Banking division, the structured finance business closed nine transactions, deploying approximately $260m (QR946.8m), of which approximately $50m (QR182m) was syndicated. QInvest continued to actively work on mandates for both sovereign and corporate entities, which the team expects to execute in the second half of the year. Moreover, the mergers and acquisitions team remained active, most notably benefiting from international transaction flows.
During H1, 2015, the Principal Investments unit secured and invested in a yielding equity opportunity in the German retail market, yielding assets leased to national government agencies and a hospitality value add opportunity as well as additional mezzanine debt transactions, all in the US. Additionally, the team continues to pursue residential development opportunities in London on a co-investment basis. Following exits in 2014, the historical portfolio of non-real estate Principal Investments has been reduced significantly, and this trend continues.
During the period, QInvest also made a select number of new equity investments; in aggregate deploying approximately $50m (QR182m) in three transactions. The transactions took the form of both direct co-investments and fund investments; in all cases the investments were made alongside leading investment groups.
Within the Asset Management division, the clients continue to benefit from the impressive performance and returns which QInvest has generated across our portfolios. QMAP, QInvest’s pioneering open architecture sharia’a compliant fund platform, now includes an additional regional equity fund, the Qatar Equity Fund (the ‘Fund’). Launched in the last quarter, the Fund uses the highly successful local equity strategy, which has annualized returns of above 22 percent since launch in 2013, and is significantly ahead of the benchmark and its peers. Whilst previously only offered as a segregated account, the new Fund [now] provides access to a broader number of eligible investors.
