QINVEST, Qatar's leading private investment group and one of the region’s most prominent Islamic financial institutions, today announced its results for the first half of 2017. Revenues from all business lines were QAR 209 million (US$ 57 million), resulting in an operating profit of QAR 113 million (US$ 31 million) and net profits of QAR 34.6 million (US$ 9.5 million). The bank’s global assets stood at QAR 4,703 million (US$ 1,292 million) as of June 30, 2017.
With diversified investment activity across sectors and geographies, QINVEST’s prudent strategic approach, stringent provisioning policy and underleveraged balance sheet has provided stability amid regional uncertainties. The bank maintains a healthy capital adequacy ratio with strong liquidity to invest in promising investment opportunities.
Tamim Hamad Al-Kawari, Chief Executive Officer of QINVEST, said:
“While the second quarter of 2017 has been notable for adverse market conditions in the region, QINVEST has again delivered profitable performance, demonstrating the sustainability and resilience of our business strategy. We remain prudent in our management of risk and have built up a strong liquidity position and an underleveraged balance sheet while also continuing to invest in key global markets on an opportunistic basis. Our primary focus is to ensure that our business lines continue to deliver value for clients and shareholders at a time when they are counting on us the most.”
QINVEST has a number of updates across its three key business lines - Investment Banking, Asset Management, and Principal Investments, which focuses on real estate, credit and equity investment.
QINVEST completed a number of transactions and advisory mandates during the first half of 2017. The bank acted as a sole advisor to a Qatari entity on its US$ 220 million investment into a leading Turkish retail group, and as sole advisor to a consortium of investors on the acquisition of a US$ 1.12 billion stake in Arab Bank Plc.
In the debt markets, QINVEST acted as joint lead manager and bookrunner on a number of Sukuk issuances, including Dar Al Arkan’s 5-year US$ 500 million senior Sukuk issuance, Ezdan Holding Group’s 5-year US$ 500 million senior Sukuk issuance, Al Baraka Group’s successful debut with a US$ 400 million perpetual additional tier I Sukuk issuance and QIB’s highly successful US$ 750 million Sukuk issuance.
QINVEST continued to manage its joint bid with Atlas Merchant Capital LLC to take one of the bank’s strategic investment private and reposition it as a key specialized company in the UK market. The transaction was recommended by the Independent Directors of the Board of the strategic investment and recently received 99.94% approval in the relevant shareholder General Meeting.
On the Credit Investments front, QINVEST continues to seek investment and co-investment opportunities for shareholders and clients. The Credit Investments team’s strategy is to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns with a focus on portfolio diversification, value maximizing rotation and liquidity optimization. During the first half, QINVEST deployed almost US$ 65 million across several investments in different sectors, mostly in regional and emerging markets. Moreover, the bank has realized returns for its own capital, and the capital of co-investors, from some of these portfolio investments.
The QINVEST real estate team completed the acquisition of two real estate assets in the United States, both as part of the bank’s US multifamily residential investment strategy. This included a property in Denver, Colorado; the second being a co-investment in an upscale residential development in Charlotte, North Carolina. The business also achieved two meaningful exits, namely the full exit of the St Edmund Fund (an investment in a prime real-estate development in Central London) which provided investors with a realized net return of 22%, and the exit on a mezzanine transaction in the US which netted a 13% IRR over 20 months.
The Asset Management department has had a strong first half delivering impressive performance across both local and global markets and results that place QINVEST as a leader amongst its peer groups. These achievements have been recognized through several awards, including “Qatar - Asset Management Advisory Firm of the Year” and “Best Open-ended Sharia’a Securities Fund” for the QInvest-GAM Sharia’a Fund. In addition, the Asset Management team launched the QInvest SQN Income Fund in the first quarter of 2017 in collaboration with SQN Capital Management, a leader within the global equipment leasing industry. The fund invests into global leases and has deployed a significant part of its assets which have started to distribute a yield equivalent to 7% per annum on a monthly basis. The fund is on target to generate an 8-9% IRR for its investors by the end of its investment term. Within Istanbul, the team continues to deliver top quartile performance and has won a number of significant institutional mandates.