FGB, one of the leading banks in the UAE, announced its H1’2014 financial results, showing continued and solid performance across all business lines. The Bank’s Net Profit stood at AED 2,680 Million, a 21% increase when compared with the same period last year (H1’2013). FGB’s net profit for the second quarter of 2014 rose by 16% compared with Q2’2013, to AED 1,350 Million.

FGB’s exceptional performance was driven by a strong balance sheet, yielding solid and diversified revenues, improved asset quality metrics and enhanced profitability during the period. 

Abdulhamid Saeed, FGB Managing Director and Board Member, said: “The strong results achieved during the first half of 2014 reflect the effectiveness of FGB’s strategy to expand and drive the business forward. Exactly one year ago, we reshaped our businesses into three core pillars: the Wholesale Banking Group, the Consumer Banking Group and the Treasury & Global Markets Group. This allowed us to significantly enhance synergies between our core businesses, deepen our expertise and our product offering across a number of areas, and improve our overall value proposition. We have also successfully integrated both subsidiaries ‘Dubai First’ and ‘Aseel Islamic Finance’ into our existing operations, which has strengthened the business and enabled us to better meet the needs of our customers.”

FGB’s strong franchise and solid performance were recognised by various leading bodies. The Bank was named the “Best Bank in the UAE” at the 2014 Banker Middle East Industry Awards for the second year in a row and received the “Best Wealth Management Firm” award for the year as well. Furthermore, Forbes Middle East magazine placed FGB in 8th position on its ‘Top 500 companies in the Arab World’ list.  FGB was also the 4th leading bank (2nd in the UAE) on the list and one of only 26 ranked organisations to have been honoured with an exclusive award within the banking category.

Rating agencies have also reaffirmed FGB’s strength and leadership. Capital Intelligence, the international credit rating agency, recently announced that it has ranked the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of FGB at 'A+', with its strong profitability, solid capitalisation, improving liquidity and rising loan-loss reserve coverage ratio being major supporting factors.

Andre Sayegh, CEO of FGB, commented: “This recognition highlights FGB’s outstanding achievements throughout the past year. The solid performance in the first half of 2014 is a continuation in this direction.  Our recent rebrand also signifies our aspirations and clear plan to position FGB for long-term sustainable success in the UAE and across geographies. In addition, the recent inclusion of FGB stock in the MSCI Emerging Market Index reaffirms our leadership and our commitment to pursue our efforts towards maximising returns for all our stakeholders.”

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