GFH Financial Group announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021, with a net profit attributable to shareholders was $23.88 million, up 8.92 percent, compared with $21.93 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The increase resulted from continued solid performance across the Group’s core business lines and significant contributions from its investment banking business, generating $52.25 million in fees from placement activities linked to investments in the logistics, healthcare, and education sectors.
Consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter was $24.34 million compared with $19.04 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, an increase of 27.87 percent.
GFH reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of $84.22 million for the entire year compared with $45.09 million in 2020, an increase of 86.77 percent.
The increase reflects more robust contributions throughout 2021 from all business lines, including investment banking, commercial banking, real estate, and treasury activities.
Total income for the year was $398.75 million, up 23.30 percent from $323.39 million for the previous year.
Consolidated net profit for the year was $92.62 million comparedS$49.34 million in 2020, an increase of 87.70 percent.
In line with results, the Board of Directors has recommended a total cash dividend of $60 million at 6.07 percent on par value.
Chairman of GFH, Jassim al-Seddiqi, said the company is pleased with its performance for 2021 and the solid growth achieved across the business.
Despite the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic around the world, GFH improved income, strengthened profitability, and delivered a healthy dividend for the shareholders.
“Our results also continue to reflect the strength of our strategy and the quality of the portfolio of assets we have built and expanded over the past year across the region, US, UK, and Europe.”
The Group also took essential steps to enhance its balance sheet quality during the year.
“We completed the restructuring of our commercial banking business and set the grounds to spin off our real estate and infrastructure assets to a new company, “Infracorp,” which was announced in January 2022 and will specialize in investing in and managing sustainable infrastructure and real estate assets,” announced Seddiqi.
Group CEO of GFH Hisham al-Rayes said that GFH entered 2021 with solid momentum and continued to diversify and expand our business throughout the year successfully.
Rayes stressed: “Significant progress was made across all of our business lines with each and every area strengthening its contributions to the top and bottom-line growth. “
“We were especially pleased with the performance of our international investment portfolio, which not only showed resilience but consistently strong returns.”
Investing in downturn-proof assets has enabled GFH to continue to generate steady streams of income for the Group and its investors despite the remaining difficulties from the pandemic and its impact on global markets, said Rayes.
