JIB okays 15pc cash dividends

Manama : The General Assembly of Jordan Islamic Bank (JIB), a subsidiary of Al Baraka Banking Group yesterday agreed to distribute cash dividends to shareholders at 15 per cent of the paid capital and to increase the bank’s capital by US$42.3 million/ share in the amount of 20pc as free shares. 

“Thus, the Bank’s capital has become US$ 253.9m instead of US$211.6m and the increase will be covered from retained profits,” JIB said in a statement. 

Commenting on the result, Adnan Ahmed Yousif, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JIB and the President & Chief Executive of Al Baraka Banking Group pointed out that despite downturn in global economy, the bank was able to reinforce its status and provide the best Islamic banking products and services to reap several worldwide prizes and sharia & credit ratings from international institutions. 

By the end of 2016, profits before tax grew by 12.1pc to US$118.1m compared to US$105.4m in 2015. Net profits after tax grew by 11pc to US$76.2m compared to US$68.7m in 2015. 

Musa Shihadeh, CEO / General Manager of Jordan Islamic Bank indicated that the growth of the revenues reached 10.8pc amounting to US$313.1m compared to US$282.5m at the end of 2015. The growth of joint investments profits prior distribution reached around 11.6pc, amounting to US$279.1m compared to US$250.2m in 2015.

Growth in Shareholders’ equity reached about 10.1pc, amounting to US$483.4m compared to about US$438.9m at end of 2015.The Return On Average Equity (ROAE) after tax reached about 16.52pc.

At the end of 2016, the growth in the total balances of saving schemes reached around 7.8pc to around US$5.69bn, distributed to about (903) thousand active accounts compared to around US$5.28bn in 2015 distributed to around (816) thousand active accounts.

Growth in the total balances of financing and investment reached around 3pc amounting to US$4.57bn distributed to 239 thousand transactions compared to around US$4.45bn at end of 2015 distributed to 201 thousand transactions.

By the end of 2016, the number of beneficiaries of the bank’s financings reached around 167.299 thousand beneficiaries and the outstanding balance of financing amounted to about US$1620m.

Concerning the future plan of the bank for the year 2017, Shihadeh said that bank would open two new branches, six offices and will continuing to make available alternative energy in the sites of the Bank, by generating electrical power using solar cells.