Bahrain: Wednesday, March 22 - 2006 http://www.ameinfo.com/81201.html
The annual Ordinary General Meeting of Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) convened yesterday, where it approved the final accounts of the Group for 2005 as well as the distribution of cash dividends of US$17 million to the shareholders and the issue of new shares for US$122 million.
The meeting was followed by an Extraordinary General Meeting to approve the amendments to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of ABG with respect to increasing the capital by the amount of the newly issued shares that were distributed to the existing shareholders.

Sheikh Saleh Abdulla Kamel, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ABG said that the General Meeting's approval of the recommendation to distribute cash dividends and issue new shares follows from the excellent results achieved, and reflects the confidence of the shareholders in the future of the Group, especially that it is about to launch the Initial Public Offering (IPO), which will open new horizons for consolidating the Group's resources, growing its business and expanding its geographical presence in new promising market.

The financial results of Al Baraka Baking Group for 2005 reflect remarkable achievements. The net income of the Group jumped by 49.19% up from US$211.85 million to US$316.07 million, reflecting a growth in all financing and investment businesses of the Group. Such results, also, come as a result of a number of measures that the Group took during 2005 to enhance its financial resources and improve the operating environment, in addition to unifying and improving the coordination between the businesses of the subsidiaries within a unified strategy. The net income, after the deduction of all expenses and minority interest share of profits, reached US$79.37, a very commendable increase of 115.4% over the net income of US$36.85 million in 2004.

The total assets of the Group achieved a growth of 24.1% on 2004 figures to reach US$6.267 billion, while total deposits increased by 22.1% to reach US$5.180 billion and shareholders equity by 34.2% to amount to US$566 million. This increase in main financing sources matches the growth in assets, especially the financing and investment portfolios. As a result, the return on average shareholders equity and on average assets increased from 9.27% and 0.80% respectively in 2004 to 16.06% and 1.40% in 2005.

Commenting on these results, Sheikh Saleh Kamel said that such results were a reflection of the many strategic initiatives that the Group implemented during 2005 to diversify the financing sources on one side and to expand investment and financing operations on the other. They also reflect the exceptionally hard work of the senior management and the executive management teams at the subsidiaries in unifying their strategies and resources to seize upon the growing opportunities in their markets. This enabled them to contribute effectively towards serving their communities and their personal and corporate clients, especially in view of their thorough knowledge of their respective markets.

Sheikh Saleh Kamel added that, "We look to the future of the Group with total confidence, because of the unique points of strength it possesses including the long history of the Group and its subsidiaries, wide geographical presence of such banks in major Arab and Islamic countries, in-depth knowledge of the markets in which we operate - all of which enables us to provide products and services that meet the personal and development needs of individuals and economic sectors in such countries. Our strengths also include modernization programs for improving the operating environment, and the IPO that we plan to launch shortly."

On a related subject, Mr. Adnan Ahmed Yousif, Board Director and Chief Executive Officer of Albaraka Banking Group, said that the Group's IPO plan is progressing as planned according to the set timetable, and it is expected to be started during the third week of April 2006.

The IPO is expected to result in a substantial increase in the Group's shareholders' equity from about US$566 million, at the present time, to about one billion US dollars. This will make it one of the biggest Islamic banking institutions in the Arab and Islamic worlds. No doubt that the strategic decision of the Group to convert to a joint stock company will lead to the creation of an Islamic banking institution that has a very solid capital base that will be able to compete with major conventional and Islamic banks operating in this region and beyond, armed with greater human, financial, technical and human resources. .

Sheikh Saleh Abdulla Kamel, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al Baraka Banking Group, expressed his thanks to senior officials at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Bahrain Monetary Agency and Bahrain Stock Exchange for the cooperation and support they extended to the Group since its inception, which reinforces the prominent status of Bahrain as an Islamic banking centre. He also extended his thanks to the Group's customers and investors for their generous and continuous support and to the senior management team of the Group, executive management teams of the subsidiaries and to all staff for their hard work and dedication, which were the main reasons behind the success achieved by the Group.