- Revenue increased by 36% to QAR 102 million (US$ 28 million)
- Net Profit increased by 34% to QAR 37 million (US$ 10 million)
QInvest, Qatar's leading private investment group and one of the world’s prominent Islamic financial institutions, today announces a strong start to the year, with an increase of 36% revenues for the first quarter to QAR 102 million (US$ 28 million) and net profit up 34% to QAR 37 million (US$ 10 million).
Tamim Hamad Al-Kawari, Chief Executive Officer of
QInvest, said:
“2016 started with significant negative market headwinds.
I am especially pleased with our ability to deliver growth
and profitability in these conditions, which I see as
further testament of the sustainability of QInvest’s
strategy thought business cycles. The Firm continues to
grow and we remain vigilant to ensure new business
activities, transactions and most importantly people are
fully in line with the Firm’s culture and risk-return
framework.
Mr Al Kawari added:
“Continuing the new phase of our strategy to deliver
proprietary transactions not only for our balance sheet
but also for clients and shareholders, the first quarter
of 2016 saw the successful syndication of our first German
retail transaction which generated significant demand in
the region and is already yielding returns above the
original plan. We are currently in the market with a
serviced apartment redevelopment project in the City of
London and continue to build our pipeline for the rest of
the year. We also completed the acquisition of Ergo
Portfoy, Munich RE’s Turkish asset management business,
adding onshore execution capabilities in a key Islamic
finance market.”
Investment Banking
In the Investment Banking division, the structured finance
business completed its first transactions in the renewable
energy and aircraft financing sectors - both offering
strong risk adjusted returns in line with the firm's
investment criteria. There is significant growth in these
two sectors and QInvest has teamed up with specialized
sector players to monetize the opportunity for clients and
the Firm’s own balance sheet. QInvest continued to deploy
capital in Islamic Financial Institutions and completed
KuveytTurk's Tier Two Sukuk issuance in this reporting
period. Also, the team successfully exited one of its
telecom tower financing transactions in January, with
mid-teen percentage returns.
QInvest’s Mergers & Acquisitions franchise remains
extremely busy after having completed the sale of Miramax
to beIN Media Group, as well as the acquisition of a
strategic stake in a leading regional food and beverage
group for a key family office client. The Firm is
currently active on a number of regional sell-side and
buy-side mandates for government related entities and
families in the region, and continue to build up its
capital markets pipeline, despite difficult market
conditions.
Principal Investments
The Principal Investments division continues to deploy
capital and reinvest in both equity and high yielding
credit. In the real estate sector, it recently closed on
transactions in London (serviced apartments), Germany
(retail) and the US (value-add hospitality) and is
currently assessing multiple real estate opportunities in
sectors such as private rented residential, student
accommodation (mainly in Germany) and forward purchases of
commercial real estate. Additionally, the team continues
to search for opportunistic equity investments and
mezzanine financing transactions in the US and Europe
(including the UK).
Asset Management
The Asset Management division has experienced a good start
to the year despite global market volatility, with a
strong performance producing healthy growth across a
number of mandates. The key development for the division
was the completion of the acquisition of Ergo Portfoy,
with whom QInvest Asset Management has previously
collaborated on the launch of an onshore Turkish fund
series.
Ergo Portfoy is one of the leading asset management groups in Turkey with over TRL 1.5 billion in assets under management, providing pension and mutual fund and discretionary portfolio management services. It has generated strong revenues in recent years, outperforming the peer group, and its unparalleled client servicing capabilities have helped it to become the largest Islamic asset management company in Turkey. Ergo Portfoy has been rebranded as QInvest Portfoy and will continue to be headquartered in Istanbul. The new company has been granted a license to operate by The Capital Markets Board of Turkey and is licenced to offer portfolio management to both individual and institutional investors. The addition of QInvest Portfoy brings the total assets under management for QInvest Asset Management to close to US $1Billion, within 3 years of launching the division.