al baraka banking group's profits rise by 11% with assets stands at $25billion at end of the first quarter of 2018
The financial results of Al Baraka Banking Group BSC (ABG), the leading Islamic banking group based in the Kingdom of Bahrain, for the first quarter of 2018 showed good increases in income, with total operating income increased by 3% and net income by 11% compared to the same period last year, while balance sheet items almost stabilized at the same levels of December 2017.
During the first quarter of 2018, the fluctuations of local currencies in a number of Arab and ME countries where ABG units operate against the US dollar continued, which affected the reported growth figures of both income and balance sheet items in terms of US dollar. However, due to prudent policies in selecting high-quality assets, rationalizing expenses, increasing spending efficiency, expanding branches after extensive feasibility studies, and offering more innovative products and services through our banking subsidiaries, the Group was able to achieve good profits results, where total operating income increased by 3% to reach US$ 257 million during the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same period last year. The net income achieved a good growth of 11% to reach US$ 57 million during the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same period last year.
During the first quarter of 2018, Al Baraka Banking Group continued to implement business and markets expansion initiatives and diversification of income sources through its banking units located in 16 countries, which their operations in their countries achieved a noticeable growth in all financial and investment activities, and most of them reported a large jump in profits. However, as mentioned earlier, the growth rates of assets were affected by the decline in value of local currencies against the US dollar, the currency of reporting the Group’s consolidated statements. Therefore, the consolidated balance sheet items of Al Baraka Banking Group reported total assets of US$ 25.1 billion at the end of March 2018. The Group maintained a large portion of these assets in the form of liquid assets in order to seize the financing opportunities and to face the fluctuations in the markets.