MANAMA: The overwhelming majority of 84% of the total shareholding of the Bahrain-headquartered Islamic banking major, Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG), approved the payment of the cash dividend and bonus shares to shareholders worth US$ 68.9 million for the year of 2016.
The ABG held its Ordinary and Extra-Ordinary General Meetings on 20th March 2017 at Al Baraka headquarters in Bahrain Bay, Kingdom of Bahrain, was led by the Chairman of the board of directors, Shaikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Chairman of the Group and the shareholders.
The Group’s shareholders reviewed at the ordinary general meeting the report submitted by the Board of Directors on the Group’s activities, the report of the Sharia Supervisory Board and the external auditors’ report for the financial year ended 31 December, 2016. The consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2016 were also reviewed and approved. The meeting approved the proposed distribution of profits for the financial year ended 31 December 2016 subject to the required official approvals and the transfer of 10% of the net income amounting to US$ 15,154,458 to the statutory reserve, the distribution US$ 11,396,304 as cash dividend to the shareholders amounting to a 1 US Cent for each share equal to 1% of the par value of the share, and the transfer of US$ 124,993,819 to the retained earnings.
The ordinary general meeting approved also the recommendation of the Board of Directors to distribute bonus shares to shareholders, registered as of the date of the meeting, amounting to 1 share for every 20 fully paid up shares (totaling US$ 57,460,923 and equal to 5% of the issued and paid up capital) from the retained earnings subject to the required official approvals.
The Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) then was held and it approved the increase of the issued and paid up share capital from US$ 1,149,218,451 to US$1,206,679,374 by the transfer of US$ 57,460,923 to the Share Capital and the issue of bonus shares of 1 share for every 20 fully paid up shares to the shareholders registered as of the date of this meeting. The meeting also approved amendment to the Memorandum and Articles of Association to increase the capital as above and the authorize and empower the Board of Directors or its delegate to take the necessary action to affect the amendments in the Memorandum and Articles of Association and publish information on the increase in the share capital, and the amendment to the Memorandum and Articles of Association.
The meeting approved a remuneration of US$ 1.5 Million to the Members of the Board of Directors and the recommendation of the Board of Directors to reappoint Ernst and Young as Auditors for the financial year ending 31 December 2017, and to authorize the Board of Directors or its delegate to fix their remuneration.
The meeting then reviewed the Corporate Governance Report pursuant to Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) regulations, which included the evaluation of the performance of ABG’s board of directors, members of the Board and Board Committees and the attendance of members at Board Meetings for 2016.
The meeting also approved the payment of the shareholders’ Zakat (on the distributable dividends as of 31 December 2016,) of 25.78 US Cents for each 1,000 shares, and authorized the ABG management to pay US$ 4,021,457 as Zakat on behalf of the shareholders, to be deducted directly from the retained earnings.
The AGM elected the members of the board of directors for a new term of three years after obtaining CBB’s approval. The following members were also elected Shaikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Mr. Abdulla A. Saudi, Mr. Abdullah Saleh Kamel, Mr. Saleh Al Yousef, Mr. Adnan Ahmed Yousif, Mr. Abdul Elah Sabbahi, Mr. Ebrahim Fayez Al Shamsi, Mr. Jamal Bin Ghalaita, Mr. Yousef Ali Fadil Bin Fadil, Dr. Bassem Awadallah, Mr. Mohyedin Saleh Kamel, Mr. Fahad Abdullah A. Al-Rajhi and Mr. Saud Saleh AlSaleh.
