-Bangladesh meeting on jobs from Feb 3-5 page 11

sunday, february 2, 2020

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QFMA meeting highlights ‘Focused execution of 5-year plan social role of capital mkts

QNA helped CB achieve record profit’ The third annual conference The bank reported a 21% year-on-year jump in net profit to QR2.02 billion in 2019, highest in the bank’s 45-year history of Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) was held Satyendra Pathak for whom we are a natural in Doha, in the presence of Doha link because we have a branch Governor of the Qatar Cen- in Turkey,” he said. tral Bank Sheikh Abdul- Focused execution of Com- On its associate, National lah bin Saoud al Thani, and mercial Bank’s five-year plan Bank of Oman, he said, “NBO Deputy Governor Sheikh helped the bank achieve the maintains its strong position Mohammed bin Hamad al highest net profit in its history in the Omani market. NBO, Thani , who is also Chairman in 2019, the bank’s top execu- performed steadily during of the Board of Directors of tive has said. 2019, reporting a net profit of the QFMA. The Commercial Bank QR485 million.” The conference highlight- Group has reported a 21 per- In the neighbouring UAE, ed the enhancement of liquidi- cent year-on-year jump in he said, Commercial Bank will ty and the social role of capital net profit to QR2.02 billion wait for United Arab Bank markets and ways of protect- in 2019, highest in the bank’s (UAB) to achieve its right ing minority rights. history of 45 years. valuation before entering into QFMA CEO Nasser Ahmed Addressing a media stake sale process again. said the Qatari capital market, roundtable on the bank’s ex- When asked whether well managed during the past, ceptional results, Commercial Commercial Bank would ex- will continue its successes as it Bank Group Chief Executive pand into more countries, achieved more growth and de- Officer Joseph Abraham said, Abraham said, “We will con- velopment under the interna- “Commercial Bank’s net profit tinue to focus on consolidat- tional and regional conditions in 2019 is the highest since ing our position in markets supported by the strengths of 1974 when the bank was incor- like Turkey and Oman. Cur- the national economy in over- porated as Qatar’s first private rently, we are not looking at coming challenges. sector bank. The strong execu- other countries.” He said, “There is no tion of our five-year plan has Commercial Bank, he doubt that the financial mar- reflected in the strong profit.” said, has embarked on a digi- kets today face many chal- Net interest income for Commercial Bank Group Chief Executive Officer Joseph Abraham (centre) addresses a media roundtable in Doha recently. tal transformation journey in lenges whether related to the group rose 19 percent to line with its passion to pro- innovation, technology and QR2.96 billion in 2019 and Bank’s five-year strategic ham said, “Despite challeng- vide the “best client experi- sustainable development, net interest margin improved plan, Abraham said, “We ing market conditions and lira ence, creativity and innova- or legislation, governance to 2.5 percent against 2.1 per- have recognised five C’s like depreciation by about 21 per- tion.” and investor protection, and cent a year ago. corporate earnings quality, The 2019 results have cent, Turkey’s Alternatif Bank Commercial Bank em- many other issues. This, Abraham said, was client experience, creativity shown that we are going in reported a 10 percent jump in braced a new era of digitisa- “We hope, through your driven by the strong execu- and innovation, culture and net profit to QR100 million. It tion by launching ‘CB Fawri’, fruitful proposals and discus- tion of its strategic plan to compliance to become the the right direction to earn grew customer deposits by 4 ‘CB Wallet’, and ‘SWIFT GPI’, sions and through this confer- build a strong diversified best bank in Qatar. The 2019 the confidence and trust of percent. ABank remains a stra- he said adding the bank is ence, to find a perception and business while provisioning results have shown that we our clients and shareholders tegic asset and an important committed to upgrade its Mo- the best ways to move forward legacy loans and improving are going in the right direc- opportunity for us to leverage bile App and widen its digital in developing the work system cost efficiency. tion to earn the confidence Commercial Bank Group CEO outside the GCC market.” infrastructure. and activities of our financial “The increase in margins and trust of our clients and Joseph Abraham “The World Cup is a major “We have also been focus- markets, in a manner that is mainly due to lower cost shareholders.” driver of growth in the con- ing on bringing digital bank- ensures continuity in keeping of funds as we dynamically He said Commercial Bank bank continued to invest in struction sector, and many ing to our SME clients, since pace with all competencies managed our liability book will continue to push to in- thing we are remedying very the processes digitisation of our clients are involved in it is a productive, efficient, and abilities of the develop- in a falling interest rate en- crease lending to state-run quickly,” added Abraham, and insourced key functions, construction and transporta- and quicker way of operat- ments of the global capital vironment through a change companies as the govern- who took over as Commer- which led the cost-to-income tion, so we help them by fi- ing,” he said. market. in liability book mix. Within ment presses ahead with in- cial Bank Group CEO in July ratio improve to 28.3 percent nancing their daily operations Commercial Bank EGM “This matter would con- the asset book, the invest- frastructure projects. 2016. from 33.4 percent. and projects. It is a great op- and Chief Financial Officer tribute to creating a stimulat- ment book yields improved,” “We have historically Reiterating the commit- In relation to Alternatif portunity and we are seeing, Rehan Ahmed Khan also ad- ing and attractive investment he said. been underweight in the pub- ment to efficiency and cost Bank, Commercial Bank’s for example, a lot of Turkish dressed the media on the oc- environment for local and for- As part of Commercial lic sector and this is some- optimisation, he said, the subsidiary in Turkey, Abra- contractors working in Qatar casion. eign investments.” 15% rise in tourist arrivals in Qatar Tourist influx result in a jump in hotel revenues and occupancy rates, which hit 65% in 2019

Rahul Preeth Doha

Tourist arrivals in Qatar saw an increase of 15 percent to 2.1 million in 2019, leading to a re- covery in hotel occupancy rates, new research has said. According to the fourth quar- ter real estate market review by research firm Kushman & Wake- field, the occupancy rates have been recovering throughout 2019 as more visitors arrived in Qatar. Last year, the Hamad In- ternational Airport also saw an increase of 12 percent in traffic, serving 39 million passengers — a record number since its open- ing. The fourth quarter of 2019 saw the opening of Al Messila Resort (in picture), The Park Hyatt Doha and DoubleTree Citing the Ministry of Devel- by Hilton in . opment Planning and Statistics, the report said the overall oc- port released by the NTC, hotel fourth quarter. cupancy rate in November 2019 Last year, the Hamad apartments have seen occupancy This excludes the Doha Mar- was 65 percent, which is 6 per- International Airport saw an rates increase in 2019. This is in riott and Four Seasons, two of cent higher than the correspond- increase of 12 percent in part due to reduced rates being Qatar’s most prominent 5-star ing rate for 2018. This growth traffic, serving 39 million offered to long-stay guests.” hotels, which have temporarily was achieved despite the overall passengers — a record num- The report also expects hotel closed for renovations. increase in the number of rooms ber since its opening apartments to continue to pri- The fourth quarter also saw available. oritise occupancy over ADRs in the opening of Al Messila Resort, While overall average daily 2020, as new supply arrives in The Park Hyatt Doha — the third rates (ADRs) in November fell by it expected official occupancy the market, increasing competi- hotel in Msheireb Downtown — 3 percent to QR377, the increase and performance statistics for tion within the sector Following and DoubleTree by Hilton in Al in occupancy rates resulted in an Q4 to reflect further improve- the opening of approximately Sadd. overall increase in revenue per ment when officially released 1,900 new hotel keys in Qatar in Four and five-star hotels con- available room (RevPAR) by 5.6 due in part to Qatar’s hosting of 2019, Cushman & Wakefield es- tinue to dominate the Qatar hotel percent to QR244 since the cor- the FIFA World Club Champion- timate that the total number of landscape, comprising more than responding month in 2018. ships in December. available rooms reached more 90 percent of overall hotel supply Cushman & Wakefield said “Based on the most recent re- than 27,200 by the end of the by room keys.