CBK Board recommends 18% cash dividend and 10% bonus shares

Ali Al-Mousa

KUWAIT: Subsequent to Commercial Bank of Kuwait's disclosure of the financial statements for the year ended 31/12/2017, Ali Al-Mousa, the Bank's chairman said that "I would like to invite our valued shareholders, investors and stakeholders to read the details of the published financial statements which serve as an objective guidance on the Bank's financial performance."

The profitability indicator of the Bank's 2017 financial results showed high improvement with profitability increasing remarkably which in its turn translated the Bank's Management focus to enhance profitability ratio in 2017 regardless of assets growth. As a result, the Bank reported net profit of KD 55.4 million for the year ended 31/12/2017, a growth of 10 percent from the 2016 net profit of KD 50.4 million. The earnings per share are 33.9 fils compared to 30.8 fils for the last year. The Board of Directors recommended the distribution of cash dividends of 18 fils per share (18 percent) and a bonus issue of 10 shares for each hundred shares (10 percent), compared to last year's 15 fils cash dividend and a bonus issue of 10 shares.

Commenting on the Bank's financial results, Ali Al-Mousa, the Bank's Chairman explained that the Bank witnessed a healthy growth in all the key areas of its business. Net interest income grew by 10.4 percent and fee income grew by 7.8 percent. The total provisions held with the Bank against its credit portfolio were KD 137 million. The NPL ratio to total loan portfolio is 0.53 percent which is the lowest NPL ratio at the level of Kuwaiti banks. KD 32 million were recovered from the written-off debts during 2017, while cumulative recovery during the last six years has been KD 138 million. Further, the Bank saw a growth in its shareholders' equity which amounted to KD 655 million in 2017 with growth of 8.5 percent compared to KD 604 million in 2016.

The Bank's Management endeavored to develop the techniques of providing more secured and innovative banking services to customers through the self service system recently developed by the Bank's IT concerned departments. It is worthwhile to note that the majority of our customers were satisfied with the self-service functionalities. Furthermore, a number of flexible e-services were introduced such as the smart deposit & withdrawal ATMs. The Bank is well under the way to further develop and upgrade its automated systems with prime focus on security features.

Al-Mousa took the opportunity to thank the Bank's shareholders, valued customers, staff and regulatory authorities for their support, emphasizing that the Bank's Management continues to implement all the required procedures for safeguarding the interest of the Bank, its shareholders and all other stakeholders.