 On Behalf of 
Business & Finance Club - Finance - Dubai:
Investment bank Shuaa Capital returned to profitablility with a first quarter a profit of Dh19.5 million for the first quarter ended 31 March 2010, a significant improvement compared to a loss of Dh202.2 million in Q1 2009.
All fee business units were profitable during the quarter.
Asset Management saw a profit of Dh8.3 million, while Brokerage recorded a profit of Dh1.5 million, Private Equity Dh2.3 million, Investment Banking Dh0.5 million and Finance Dh7.1 million.
The firm reduced its general and administrative expenses by Dh9.5 million from Dh73.1 million in the first quarter of 2009 to Dh63.6 million in the first quarter of 2010.
Majid Saif Al Ghurair, Chairman of Shuaa Capital, said: “This positive set of results demonstrates that the decisive steps we took to stabilize and recalibrate Shuaa at the end of 2009 have helped us emerge stronger from the downturn and we have made significant progress on the road to recovery. We have already begun to see the benefits of implementing a clear strategy focused on fee generating businesses, the de-risking of our Proprietary Investment Book and investment in people through the strengthening of our management team.”
Shuaa said, it recovered Dh37.7 million from its legacy portfolio during this quarter. In addition, the company managed to reduce assets and liabilities by over Dh200 million during the first quarter of 2010 as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Fee income during the quarter of Dh27.9 million is in line with Q1 2009 which confirms stability within the fee businesses.
Sameer Al Ansari, Chief Executive Officer of Shuaa Capital said: “Despite challenging market conditions, we were able to post a profitable quarter. The new Shuaa is resilient, focused and well positioned to benefit from an ongoing market recovery and we expect to see further benefits of new strategy over the course of 2010. |
