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Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Commercial Bank (CB) on Wednesday got nod from shareholders to increase the limit of an existing Global Commercial Paper and Certificates of Deposit (CP/CD) programme from $800 million to $5 billion.
The bank also got nod to issue a new Global Medium Term Notes (GMTN) programme for up to $2 billion and debt notes for up to $2 billion under an existing $5 billion Euro Medium Term Notes (EMTN) programme.
The bank’s annual general meeting (AGM) also got approval from shareholders to distribute a cash dividend of QR1.5 per share.
Addressing shareholders during the meeting, Commercial Bank Chairman Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali bin Jabor al Thani said that the bank has a clear vision to reshape the business and achieve growth based on the five-year strategic plan initiated in 2016, and that the bank’s strong bottom line performance in 2018 is a direct result of actions taken under this plan.
“The economic outlook for Qatar in 2019 is stronger and it is the same with Commercial Bank. Our key areas of focus have been taking provisions for our legacy loan book, reducing our cost to income ration,” he said.
Commercial Bank Group CEO Joseph Abraham, who made a presentation on the occasion, said, “Commercial Bank is Qatar’s oldest and leading private sector bank with a solid franchise based on over 42 years of innovation and customer service.
“To build on our past and position Commercial Bank for a sustainable future, we continue to invest in innovation, new technology, new products and new premises.”
The bank will continue to reshape and diversify its loan book with the strategic intent of decreasing its concentration in real estate and increasing the share of high quality government and public sector loans, he said.
“The provisioning process for our legacy loan book has started to tail off as we have provisioned the majority of legacy exposures and we continue to derisk legacy assets with significant single name concentrations. We have successfully reduced our costs by 11.5 percent this year moved our cost to income ratio down from 37.5 percent to 33.4 percent closer in line with the market,” he said.
As part of this re-shape, he said, the bank’s exposure to the real estate sector decreased from 29.2 percent in 2017 to 28.7 percent in 2018.
Outlining objectives for a further uplift in future business performance, he said, the bank would continue to carry out digital leadership through investment in end-to-end process automation, artificial intelligence and robotics.
Reshaping the branch network aligning to a changing customer footprint and developing new products in wealth management, transaction banking and cash management are also on the cards, he said.
During the extraordinary general assembly, shareholders also approved the proposed amendments to the bank’s articles of association related to a stock split in the 1:10 ratio.
Doha
Commercial Bank (CB) on Wednesday got nod from shareholders to increase the limit of an existing Global Commercial Paper and Certificates of Deposit (CP/CD) programme from $800 million to $5 billion.
The bank also got nod to issue a new Global Medium Term Notes (GMTN) programme for up to $2 billion and debt notes for up to $2 billion under an existing $5 billion Euro Medium Term Notes (EMTN) programme.
The bank’s annual general meeting (AGM) also got approval from shareholders to distribute a cash dividend of QR1.5 per share.
Addressing shareholders during the meeting, Commercial Bank Chairman Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali bin Jabor al Thani said that the bank has a clear vision to reshape the business and achieve growth based on the five-year strategic plan initiated in 2016, and that the bank’s strong bottom line performance in 2018 is a direct result of actions taken under this plan.
“The economic outlook for Qatar in 2019 is stronger and it is the same with Commercial Bank. Our key areas of focus have been taking provisions for our legacy loan book, reducing our cost to income ration,” he said.
Commercial Bank Group CEO Joseph Abraham, who made a presentation on the occasion, said, “Commercial Bank is Qatar’s oldest and leading private sector bank with a solid franchise based on over 42 years of innovation and customer service.
“To build on our past and position Commercial Bank for a sustainable future, we continue to invest in innovation, new technology, new products and new premises.”
The bank will continue to reshape and diversify its loan book with the strategic intent of decreasing its concentration in real estate and increasing the share of high quality government and public sector loans, he said.
“The provisioning process for our legacy loan book has started to tail off as we have provisioned the majority of legacy exposures and we continue to derisk legacy assets with significant single name concentrations. We have successfully reduced our costs by 11.5 percent this year moved our cost to income ratio down from 37.5 percent to 33.4 percent closer in line with the market,” he said.
As part of this re-shape, he said, the bank’s exposure to the real estate sector decreased from 29.2 percent in 2017 to 28.7 percent in 2018.
Outlining objectives for a further uplift in future business performance, he said, the bank would continue to carry out digital leadership through investment in end-to-end process automation, artificial intelligence and robotics.
Reshaping the branch network aligning to a changing customer footprint and developing new products in wealth management, transaction banking and cash management are also on the cards, he said.
During the extraordinary general assembly, shareholders also approved the proposed amendments to the bank’s articles of association related to a stock split in the 1:10 ratio.
