JEDDAH — The Bahrain-based leading Islamic banking group Al Baraka Banking Group BSC (ABG) announced a net profit of $69 million for the first quarter of 2015, reporting an increase of 3% over the net profit of the same period of last year, the bank said in a statement on Sunday. While balance sheets items were affected by the devaluation of exchanges rates of currencies of the countries where ABG 's units work, where total assets decreased by 1%, total financing and investments remained almost the same as end of December 2014, and customer accounts decreased by 2% at the end of March 2015 compared to the end December 2014. These results reflect the Group's success in maintaining a steady growth, thanks to large diversification in income sources from different core businesses, where the income from these sources witnessed remarkable growth during the first quarter of 2015, despite the effects of currencies devaluation. The bank made a net profit attributable to equity holders of $40 million in the three months ending March 31, it said. Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Chairman of ABG, said “the political and economic tensions continued during the first quarter of 2015 in a number of countries where our units work, which was coincided with continued decline in oil prices on one side and the continued efforts to enhance recovery and growth prospects in developed countries amid fluctuated monetary and financial conditions and regulatory developments on the other hand. All these had impacts on banking environment and it was natural that banks adopted more cautious business strategies. But we nevertheless note with satisfaction that ABG continued to achieve good results, which reflects the Group success in following the sound Islamic banking model and precautionary business strategies that enabled it to deal wisely with these developments and to continue expanding its business.” Abdulla Ammar Al Saudi, Deputy Chairman of ABG, said “the financial and operational results achieved during the first quarter of 2015 reflect the keenness of the Group to grow steadily and efficiently, despite growing regional and global challenges around us, and growing regulatory, technical and human requirements. We were able to keep pace with all these challenges and requirements, committed to the highest professional and ethical values and principles, and thanks to implementation of wise strategies and programs supported by strong financial means, human resources and technical capabilities possessed by the Group and the long experience of its units in the market where they operate.” Adnan Ahmed Yousif, Member of the Board of Directors and President & Chief Executive of ABG, said “the good results that we achieved during the first quarter of 2015 highlight once more our determination to continue to invest our substantial financial resources and expertise and the wide geographic network of the subsidiary units of the Group in maximizing the returns to our shareholders and the investors in the Group by implementing business strategies that are based on expanding the branch network of our units in 15 countries, improving the quality of our products and services, offering more innovative products, strengthening the relationship with our partners, investors and customers and entering new markets, as well as modernizing and developing the human, operational, regulatory and technical infrastructures at the Group and subsidiary banking units levels.” — SG
