Boubyan Bank's profits in 2019

At a Growth Rate of 12%

Al-Majed: We Take Pride in Our Achievements Over 15 Years
The Future Holds More for Our Customers & Shareholders

Boubyan Bank has reported net profit of KD 62.7 million in 2019, at a growth rate of 12% compared to 2018, with an earnings per share of 20.4 fils compared to 19.2 fils in 2018. This is a continuation of the pace of profitability growth as well as the growth in various financial indicators of the Bank since 2010. The board further recommended to the General Assembly distributions of 9% in cash dividends (9 fils per share) and 5 % in bonus shares.

Mr. Mahmoud Al-Fulaij, the Bank’s Chairman, congratulated all the shareholders, customers and staff of the Bank on such remarkable profits and other recent achievements that could be added to the excellent years of the bank's journey which is celebrating its 15^th anniversary. He further confirmed that 2020 shall witness more expansion plans in the local market, while exploring international opportunities on hand. 

Al-Fulaij added: “In 2019, Boubyan Bank followed the same path that was adopted when we implemented our then new strategy during 2010. This reflected positively on our profitability and the growth of our financial indicators at a good pace, confirming the success of our strategy along with its plans and policies implemented to reiterate our existence in the Kuwaiti market.”

** 15 Years of Achievements

On his part, Mr. Adel Abdul Wahab Al-Majed, the Bank’s Vice-Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, stated: “Despite the challenges of competition whether in the local or regional markets, we managed, thanks to Allah Almighty, and then thanks to our human resources, to achieve our targets by acquiring market shares in various sectors whether in retail or corporate banking services.”

Al-Majed stressed that he is proud of the recent achievements of the Bank, stating: “The last year marked our 15^th anniversary celebration, and the 10^th anniversary of our transformation which brought us a lot of achievements and successes, the most important of which is increasing our shares in the Kuwaiti market. The future holds more for our customers and shareholders.”

He added: “Boubyan will continue with its plans that focus on the local market, along with our international expansion plans, which started with the announcement during December 2019 of an offer to acquire the Bank of London and Middle East which is still underway.”

Mr. Al-Majed stated that all of the Bank’s main indicators witnessed a remarkable growth in 2019 where the total assets increased to KD 5.3 billion at a growth rate of 22% while customers’ deposits increased by 17%, to reach KD 4.3 billion and the financing portfolio increased to KD 3.7 billion with a growth rate of 14%, in addition to the continuous growth of the bank’s customers’ base.

He further added that the total equity of the bank increased to KD 575 million by the end of 2019 and the operating income increased to KD 146 million. Al-Majed stated as well that the market share in financing increased to approximately 9.3% in the meantime, while Boubyan Bank’s share of the retail finance increased to approximately 12%. Besides, the bank recorded outstanding growth in the corporate credit portfolio which grew by 17%. This was achieved by attracting a number of operational companies known for their financial and economic creditworthiness while continuing to maintain the highest standards of credit quality, monitoring and diversifying risks.

** Boubyan... A Lifestyle

During the past year, Boubyan Bank launched its new campaign “Boubyan... A Lifestyle”, which clearly represents the Bank’s vision and orientation towards making customers’ lives more comfortable through the services and products provided by the bank.

The year 2019 witnessed the introduction of many services and products first introduced to the market by Boubyan Bank which continues to be the leader in Kuwait in an attempt to provide its customers with exceptional and unique banking experience.

Prominent among such services was the launch of the all-new smart phones App in addition to the issuance, activation and use of the virtual prepaid card through Boubyan App. This enables customers to immediately use the card for online shopping and purchases in a more secure and convenient manner without the need to visit the branch or call the Contact Center, thereby confirming the bank’s uniqueness in the provision of digital services and products offered to customers.

Additionally, the bank earned its verified badge in WhatsApp business and successfully integrated the bank’s Chatbot service, Msa3ed, with WhatsApp business.

Boubyan Bank managed as well to introduce outstanding services for its customers upon making remittances to any international destination; this was achieved by signing an agreement with Ripple.Net . Also, all the bank’s POS with all merchants and economic sectors are now directly linked (without any intermediary bank), and the bank further launched a corporate Petty Cash card to manage corporate petty cash on a daily basis.

** Corporate and Mega Projects Financing

The Corporate Banking Group maintained a balanced growth in its corporate financing portfolio at a rate in excess of 17% despite the tough competition in corporate financing in the past year, ultimately increasing its market share to 8.2%.

The growth in financing was diversified across key productive sectors such as gas, energy, service, industrial and real estate sectors in addition to having a major and effective contribution to a number of mega projects benefiting the national economy. This was achieved by attracting new customers coupled with the bank’s existing customers without compromising the quality of the finance portfolio through implementing a prudent credit policy so as to limit bad debts at 1% of the total credit portfolio.

The group was keen to keep up with the technological advancement in the field of banking services provided to this important sector by adding various services to Boubyan Corporate App and the corporate online banking services, while adding new products and allocating exclusive branches to provide all banking services to the corporate segment.

** Supporting the Youth in Business Banking

During 2019, Boubyan Bank continued to support startups and SMEs which have gained solid grounds among young Kuwaitis recently. The bank’s Business Banking Unit provides diverse banking services to the business sector such as account-management, applications’ submission, balance-checking, and having access to account details in addition to the ability to perform other online services such as staff salary transfers, local and international transfers, cheque book request, request of audit certificates, accessing all the accounts, printing and loading account statements, deposit service and many other services.

This is coupled with many banking services and solutions including ePay service, which is a payment collection service provided by Boubyan Bank to companies in addition to the corporate Visa card which has been designed specifically to provide cardholders with exceptional benefits, giving them the chance to have access to a great deal of offers and unique experiments.

** Credit Ratings

Furthermore, Boubyan Bank has made a new achievement in 2019, adding to its other successes, when Standard & Poor’s Global rating agency confirmed its Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating at “A/Stable”, thereby ranking the Bank as the second highest credit rating among local banks.

S&P’s rationale for the rating noted Boubyan Bank as the fifth largest bank in Kuwait, with a solid retail franchise, good market position, strong capitalization as well as exhibiting good profitability.

During the past year, Boubyan Bank managed to maintain its technological leadership by receiving the World’s Best Islamic Digital Bank Award for the fifth year in a row from Global Finance.

For the first time in Kuwait, two international institutions, namely, Global Finance and the Banker, named Boubyan Bank the Best Islamic Bank in Kuwait in 2019 due to its accomplishments across various financial indicators and the growth of its market shares.

** Boubyan & Social Service

 Year 2019 was a significant milestone for Boubyan Bank with regards to its continued efforts to undertake its social role through organizing many events and initiatives which highlighted its local leadership as to serving the society, and reiterating its CSR leadership position in Kuwait, as the Bank took part in more than 200 activities across various sectors and segments.

In 2019, Boubyan Bank had a new achievement by receiving the Award for the “Replacement and Nationalization of Manpower”. This achievement is the fruit of the Bank’s keenness on adopting the latest talent development programs in developing its human resources as well as the tireless and continuous efforts over the past years which resulted in increasing the percentage of national manpower in the Bank to 77.2%. The Bank set an example in the Kuwaiti private sector for attracting the best national cadres.

Boubyan Bank’s Key Financial Indicators

In KD Million

Growth	2018	2019	Indicator
12%	56.1	62.7	Net profits
4%	140	146	Operational revenues
17%	3,721	4,347	Customers’ deposits
14%	3,262	3,729	Financing portfolio
22%	4,345	5,301	Assets

Ends

© Press Release 2020