Sheikh Jassim with al-Kawari and other QInvest directors at the company’s annual general meeting in Doha yesterday.

Registering “strong” top and bottom-line growth, QInvest has seen its revenue soar 134% to QR299mn and net profit reach QR88mn in 2014. Qatar’s leading investment bank, licensed by the Qatar Financial Centre Authority has proposed a dividend of 2% per share on par value, following its annual general meeting here yesterday.
In a statement, QInvest chairman Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani said, “2014 was a year of very strong performance for QInvest and I am pleased to report we are delivering on our promise of driving consistent growth and profitability. Despite the first half of the year being characterised by subdued markets followed by a period of heightened volatility in Q3 and Q4, all of our three revenue-generating business lines continued to grow.
QInvest chief executive officer Tamim Hamad al-Kawari said, “Over the course of the year, we strengthened our platform, launched a number of successful strategic and product initiatives and advised on numerous transactions. Crucially, all of this was achieved while strengthening and expanding relationships with existing clients. Looking to 2015, we will remain prudent and focused on executing our healthy pipeline of deal flow, taking advantage of our unique market positioning to leverage opportunities and deliver value for all our clients and shareholders.”
The debt capital markets business continued to generate significant global mandates for QInvest. The team completed sukuk transactions with an aggregate value of $3.5bn including deals for Goldman Sachs, the governments of Hong Kong and Luxembourg, Kuveyt Turk, Dar El Arkan, Turkiye Finans and Al Baraka Turk.
In 2014, QInvest closed over $200mn of structured finance transactions, successfully syndicating to top tier Islamic financial institutions. These included a number of industry firsts in terms of structure complexity and financial innovation. QInvest also successfully recycled $217mn of balance sheet assets, indicating strong regional and international demand for its financing book, providing stable recurring income as well as immediate returns for the firm.
Meanwhile, QInvest’s M&A franchise executed transactions with a total value of $3.1bn and the team is currently working on transactions across a range of sectors.
The Principle Investments team maintained its focus on investments that provide short term profitability and long term value creation within a manageable risk framework. Year 2014 was a robust year for QInvest’ asset management business, with the unit able to capitalise on the processes, infrastructure and resources which were put in place over the last two years. Additionally, the team launched and rolled out ‘Shiraa Funds’, offering clients a strong risk adjusted return.
QInvest also completed the acquisition of the former Qatar Islamic Bank United Kingdom (QIB UK) asset management unit. This acquisition includes the highly successful Luxembourg domiciled EFH fund series, including the EFH Global Sukuk Plus Fund and the EFH Islamic Financial Institutions Fund, and customised Sukuk and income portfolios.
The Qatar portfolio delivered a full-year return of 29%, which significantly outperformed both the market and its peers, it said. The division will be launching fund versions of our existing Qatar equity and GCC equity discretionary portfolios in 2015; in addition to a European fund and other funds.