DOHA: The Board of Directors of Qatar National Bank (QNB) Group yesterday appointed Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari (pictured) as the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Group, a press release said yesterday.
Al Kuwari enjoys over 25 years of experience in all aspects of business: strategic planning, sales and marketing, finance, operations, credit, human resources development, information systems, systems analysis and design, programming, business and customer partnership and business and product development.
Before being appointed as the Acting CEO of the Group, he has occupied several executive positions with QNB, including the post of Executive General Manager, Chief Business Officer with responsibility for corporate, retail, assets & wealth management, treasury and international divisions.
QNB Group is the largest financial institution in Qatar that has a market share in excess of 45 percent and is the largest in the Mena region in terms of assets, loans, deposits, profits, and equity. QNB is the most valuable financial institution brand in the MENA region and was recently named by Bloomberg Markets as the “World Strongest Bank” in 2013.
LONDON: Egypt continues to convert deposits received from Qatar into fixed-term notes, after the sovereign privately placed a $1bn bond in early July, its second such deal in just over a month.
The new $1bn three-year bond was issued on July 1 at par to yield 3.5 percent via HSBC and QNB Capital. It follows a $2.7bn, 18-month senior unsecured deal which priced at a yield of 4.25 percent in late May, part of a $5.5bn lifeline from Qatar that is expected to be converted into securities.
Both were issued from a $12bn EMTN programme set up earlier this year.
The latest transaction was completed just days before the removal of Mohamed Mursi as president. “(The deal) was planned before any of the demonstrations,” said a source familiar with the transaction. “Thankfully it closed before those events.”
The source said the Caa1/CCC rated country’s plan to sell more bonds under the programme remains in place, despite a change in leadership in both Egypt and Qatar.
If other deals are to go ahead, Egypt would need to issue a supplementary prospectus highlighting the new risk factors in the wake of Mursi’s removal, he said.
“Our assumption is that the new Emir in Qatar will continue to support Egypt,” said Paul Gamble, head of MENA sovereigns at Fitch.
“What we could also see now is more from Saudi Arabia and the UAE in terms of monetary support (for Egypt), particularly the UAE. It is significant that the Egyptian central bank governor went to the UAE this week,” he said.
The Peninsula/Reuters
