Ahli United Bank

Ahli United Bank BSC (AUB) is a full fledged commercial and investment banking group providing wealth management, retail, corporate, treasury, offshore and private banking services. The Group's businesses consist of the operations in Bahrain, a wholly owned subsidiary in the UK and associates in Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Egypt and Iraq. In Kuwait, AUB has an effective holding of 75% in the Bank of Kuwait and The Middle East while in Qatar, AUB has a 40% stake in Ahli Bank QSC. In Oman, AUB has a 35% stake in Ahli Bank SAOG while in Iraq AUB has a 49% stake in the Commercial Bank of Iraq. In Egypt, AUB, its associate banks and other Gulf financial institutions together hold an 89.3% stake in Ahli United Bank SAE. Apart from these banks, AUB has a nominal stake of 75% in KMEFIC, a brokerage, asset management and corporate finance company based in Kuwait with operations around the Arabian Gulf. Overall, the AUB Group, through its subsidiaries and associates, operates through a network of 93 branch offices and employs over 3,000 people.

AUB’s stated mission is to create an unrivalled ability to meet customer needs, provide fulfillment and development for staff and to deliver outstanding shareholder value. AUB’s strategy is to expand through both organic growth and acquisition in order to act as a ‘multifaceted financial bridge’ between the international financial markets and its Gulf clients. It has sought to establish an operating presence in each of the Pan-GCC countries with a targeted 10% - 20% market share. To this end, AUB continues to develop and invest to increase its ability to acquire new businesses and rapidly integrate them with the bank’s systems. This development has helped accelerate progress in the delivery of financial services and penetration into targeted geographical markets.

The business area strategies are geared to achieve stable and sustainable income growth, operational competitiveness, a higher quality of service, maximum cost efficiencies and greater risk assessment capabilities.

Clearly the bank’s strategic direction has yielded excellent results. AUB has continued, over the past four years, to show a solid increase in revenues and assets together with a substantial reduction in its cost-income ratio over the past four years. Some of the highlights of the bank’s performance have been:

Despite the current very challenging and difficult business environment, AUB was able to achieve a net profit of US$85.9 million for the first quarter of 2009, (Q1/2008: US$94.3 million). The results show a rise of 10.7% in total operating income to a record quarterly level of US$212.6 million while operating costs declined by 11.8% during the quarter. At 31 March 2009, the Group’s total assets stood at US$24.0 billion while customers’ deposits increased by US$ 1.0 billion (+6.8%) since the 2008 year-end.

The Group’s ratings have also been re-affirmed during Q3/08 at “A-“ with stable outlook by both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch and “A “with stable outlook by Capital Intelligence.

AUB’s performance continued to be recognised by the international financial industry during the year when it secured “Best Bank in Bahrain” Awards from Euromoney and “Best Bank in the Middle East” award from Global Finance. It was also the first ever recipient of AsiaMoney’s ‘Best Commercial Bank in Bahrain’ award during the year. Global Finance accorded AUB the ‘Best Foreign Exchange Bank in the Middle East 2008’ award.

Going forward, AUB will continue to pursue new growth opportunities while remaining focused on strict cost and risk management, thereby maximising shareholder value.