Over 83 per cent of the banks shareholding approved the financial statement and payment of the cash dividend of BD 20.98 million for 2010, 25 fils per share and equal to 25 per cent of the paid-up capital of the bank.
The AGM was presided over by the Chairman of the board Murad Ali Murad who told shareholders that the bank had yielded strong results with net profit rising to BD39.15 million in 2010, an increase of 11.80% growth over the last year.
“BBK had achieved a record net profit of BD 39.15 million in 2010 with return on equity of 16.90 per cent compared to 16.38 per cent in 2009,” he said.
Total assets at the end of the year grew by 7.38% to reach BD 2.447 billion in 2010 compared to BD 2.279 billion in 2009.
In 2010, the income from fees and commission rose by 14.6 per cent reaching BD25.27 million. Investment income also has grown from BD9.2 million in December 2009, to BD 27.85 million, which also included non-recurring gain on sale of non-trading investment in Kuwait during the first quarter of 2010. Net interest income on the other hand, stood at BD55.96 million, which included gain on partial redemption of medium term loan of BD 2.22 million (2009: BD 7.69 million).
“As 2010 proved, BBK is following the right path for success amid all the difficulties and challenges in the market. With the success achieved in 2010, we will be looking for even more ambitious targets in 2011, and I am sure that the well balanced strategy developed by BBK, will help us achieve that objective,” the Chairman added.
“During 2010 we began implementing the various initiatives as been outlined in our Corporate Strategic Plan for 2010-2012. We have been able to get off to a strong start and the fact that BBK achieved a new record net profit gives us considerable satisfaction” Abdulkarim Bucheery Chief Executive of the bank in a statement said.
He said that being in the first quarter it would be difficult to set a target for the 2011 but the resolve was there to maintain the sustainable growth patterns this year as well.
“In 2010, the bank had re-focused its efforts squarely on local and regional businesses as number of initiatives which started in 2009 was completed during 2010. There has been strong growth in our customer deposit base, particularly on the retail and local corporate sides of the business. On the corporate side we have been able to increase market share, helped by the launch of our new cash management platform,” he added.