Board of Directors recommends 7% in cash dividends, 5% in bonus shares

Majed Essa Al Ajeel, Chairman of Burgan Bank Group.

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank Group announced yesterday its full year 2017 earnings. The set of results for the period ending in 31st December 2017 reflected Burgan Bank’s continuous focus on maximizing returns for shareholders, delivering high quality earnings, operating efficiencies, and to further improve asset quality and risk profile. Reported net income for the year 2017 reached KD65.2 million ($214.9 million). Earnings per share reached 25.4 fils.

On underlying bases, Burgan Bank net income (excluding precautionary provisions & after AT1 cost) reached KD76.2 million ($251.4 million) and return on tangible equity (ROTE) reached 12.5 percent for full year 2017. The Board of Directors recommends a pay-out of 7 percent in cash dividends and 5 percent in bonus shares.

In 2017, Operating income grew by 2 percent year- on- year to reach KD239.4 million ($789.8 million). Operating efficiency continued to improve with operating expense declining by 4 percent to reach KD109.2 million ($360.2 million). The high quality earnings clubbed with across the board efficiencies, enabled the bank to grew its operating profit by 8 percent year-on- year to reach KD130.2 million ($429.5 million). Asset quality registered significant improvement with Non-performing loans (NPL) ratio declined to reach 2.7 percent with Coverage ratio of 155 percent and a lower cost of credit that reached 0.9 percent.

During the same period, loans and advances grew by 4.3 percent year on year to reach KD4.4 billion ($14.6 billion) and customers deposits grew by 11 percent to reach KD4.2 billion ($13.8 billion).

Majed Essa Al-Ajeel, Chairman of Burgan Bank Group said: “the executive management team has made significant progress on key initiatives to improve the bank capital utilization, risk profile and operating efficiencies amid challenging operating environment. The bank managed to grow loans year-on- year by 4.3 percent while reducing risk weighted assets (RWAs) - after excluding real estate collateral phase out impact. Asset quality improved significantly as NPL ratio reached 2.7 percent for the group and 1.8 percent for Kuwait operations stand alone. Group Capital Adequacy ratio stands at 16.2 percent as of December 31, 2017. Also, the bank has invested heavily in its control areas to further strengthened it risk management capabilities”

“The strength of our operating capabilities is yielding good performance reflected in the high quality earnings in 2017 with less dependency on one-offs,” continued Al-Ajeel.

“All our subsidiaries are growing, profitable and well capitalized. International Operations continued to grow and now contributing 45 percent of the Group’s operating income. Burgan Bank Group’s key financial indicators continue to point in the right direction,” added Al-Ajeel.

“On behalf of the board, I take this opportunity to thank our customers and shareholders for their confidence in our capabilities and our regulators; the Central Bank of Kuwait, for their support. I would also like to thank our executive management team for their leadership and the excellent execution of the corporate strategy, and to our staff for their continued support and commitment,” concluded Al-Ajeel.

The consolidated financials encompass the results of the Group’s operations in Kuwait, and its share from its regional subsidiaries, namely Burgan Bank - Turkey, Gulf Bank Algeria, Bank of Baghdad, Tunis International Bank. Burgan Bank Group has one of the largest regional branch networks with more than 170 branches across Kuwait, Turkey, Algeria, Iraq, Tunis, Lebanon and representative office in Dubai-United Arab Emirates.