Doha, December 16th - 2013 - QNB, the World’s Strongest Bank, has been named as the best capitalized Financial Institution and the second largest capitalized “Corporate” in the Middle East Region by Gulf Business Magazine’s Annual Survey 2013.
The findings, which confirmed QNB as the best capitalized 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 overcame strong competition from AlRajhi Bank in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to secure the top financial ranking whilst being a credible second to Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) in the entire Middle East Ranking League Tables. Overall, QNB improved its market capitalization standing by one place over the 2012 performance and this reflects the ongoing strong financial fundamentals in place across The Group.
QNB Group is amongst 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.
Underpinning a prudent domestic and international strategy is a robust financial performance. The Group recorded net profit, for the nine months ended 30th September 2013, of QR 7.1 billion, up by 14.1% compared to the same 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% from 30th September 2012 to reach QR 437 billion, the highest ever achieved by the Group.
With the addition of a new subsidiary in India and a new office in Shanghai, China, the Group’s presence now extends to 26 countries worldwide. The total number of employees is approximately 13,500, locations operated from totals over 570 and the ATM network now has over 1,200 machines.
This rapid international expansion growth has been accompanied by rigorous and best practice internal risk, governance and compliance controls to ensure that shareholder value is maintained and developed.
