DOHA: Qatar National Bank (QNB) has been named the best capitalised Financial Institution and the second largest capitalized “Corporate” in the Middle East region by Gulf Business magazine’s annual survey 2013, a statement said yesterday.
The findings, which confirmed QNB as the best capitalised company in Qatar, was carried out in conjunction with market research agency Markaz. It took into consideration the prevailing domestic economic trading conditions, the financial fundamentals and the business performance of companies over the past 12 months before making their final recommendations.
QNB Group is among the highest rated of Regional Banks with international credit ratings of Standard & Poor’s (A+), Moody’s (Aa3), Fitch (A+) and Capital Intelligence (AA-). In addition, the bank has been the recipient of many awards from leading specialized financial publications in 2013 and was recently ranked amongst the “World’s 50 Safest Banks in Emerging Markets”.
The state-backed bank overcame strong competition from AlRajhi Bank in Saudi Arabia to secure the top financial ranking while being a credible second to Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) in the entire Middle East Ranking League Tables.
Overall, QNB improved its market capitalisation standing by one place over the 2012 performance and this reflects the ongoing strong financial fundamentals in place across the group.
Underpinning a prudent domestic and international strategy is a robust financial performance. The group recorded net profit, for the nine months ended September 30 of QR7.1bn ($1.95bn), up 14.1 percent compared to the corresponding period last year.
This strong growth demonstrated QNB’s success in generating growth across a range of revenue sources.
In addition, total assets increased by 24.5 percent from September 30, 2012 to reach QR437bn ($120bn), the highest ever achieved by the Group.
The Peninsula
