Bahrain’s GFH Financial Group posted a net profit of $24.31 million for the third quarter of the year, up 1.04% from $24.06 million for the same period a year ago. Investment banking income was one of the main contributors towards the profitability of the banking group during this quarter.
Earnings per share for the third quarter was $0.71 compared to $0.73 for the comparative quarter of 2022. Total income for the third quarter of 2023 surged by 32.82% to $87.53 million compared to $65.9 million for the corresponding period a year earlier.
“The third quarter of 2023 saw the group make further progress across our business lines as we worked to maximise the value of our investments and continued to act on new opportunities in line with our strategy and focus on attractive, defensive sectors such as healthcare and life sciences, education and food logistics,” said Hisham Alrayes, the CEO and Board Member of GFH Financial Group.
Alrayes said the banking group successfully three new transactions in Q3 2023 – US Opportunistic Fund, Saudi Food Logistics Fund and US Student Housing Fund. The asset management firm also poured more than $361.1 million into its regional and international funds with investors across the GCC.
For the nine months to September 30, net profit attributable to shareholders rose by 19.14% to $78.9 million compared to $66.24 million during the same period in 2022 in line with solid contributions from all business lines.
Similarly, earnings per share for the period under review was $2.26 compared to $1.91 in 2022. Total income for the first nine months of 2023 was $261.3 million versus $188.03 million for the 2022 period, an increase of 38.96%.
Meanwhile, total expenses for the third quarter were $63.7 million compared to $39.8 million in the comparative quarter of 2022, an increase of 60% while for the first nine months of 2023, total expenses reached $180.24 million, a 54.63% increase compared to $116.6 million last year.
Total equity attributable to shareholders was $994.17 million as of September 30, down 0.24% compared to $996.6 million in December 2022.
GFH’s total assets increased by nearly 8% to reach $10.54 billion in the nine months to September 30 from $9.76 billion in December 2022.
“We enter the final months of 2023 with an attractive pipeline of opportunities in core sectors and markets, where we have expanded our presence and are growing our portfolio of income-yielding assets to generate even greater value for our investors and shareholders for the remainder of the year and beyond,” said Ghazi Al Hajeri, the Chairman of GFH Financial Group.
Capital Intelligence Ratings affirmed GFH’s long-term foreign currency rating and short-term foreign currency rating at ‘BB-’ and ‘B’, respectively, citing the asset management firm’s sound liquidity and low refinancing risk, as well as geographical diversification of assets and business lines.
