Qatar’s exuberant investment spending will throw open many opportunities on the corporate side in the years ahead, says International Islamic CEO Abdulbasit A al-Shaibei.
By Pratap John/Chief Business Reporter
After gaining the leadership position in Shariah-based retail banking, International Islamic has its eyes firmly set on improving its presence in corporate financing, said CEO Abdulbasit A al-Shaibei.
“We are strong on the retail side. Now we want to increase our market share on the corporate side as well,” al-Shaibei said in an interview with Gulf Times in Doha.
Qatar’s exuberant investment spending will throw open many opportunities on the corporate side in the years ahead, he points out.
“Corporate financing will have an exponential growth in our country, particularly in the next two to three years. We would like to have a piece of that cake too,” al-Shaibei said.
In line with this, the Doha-headquartered lender has activated its trade finance department.
“Trade finance is one source that generates a lot of fee income. Many government entities now ask international letters of credit to be confirmed by local banks. So, we are assuming that role now. My team at the international department has started building relationship with foreign banks that have clients here,” al-Shaibei said.
On promoting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the International Islamic CEO said, “We are not only financing them, but also equipping them. Besides extending finance, we help SMEs prepare balance sheet, get it properly audited. This way, we help many small scale units become professional.
“We are also an active partner with Qatar Development Bank in its initiative to help our SMEs flourish,” al-Shaibei said.
Through the Al Dhameen initiative, QDB aims to support private and SME sectors in line with its efforts to achieve economic diversification in Qatar and lower dependency on the hydrocarbons sector as a major source of income.
International Islamic will invest more on developing its retail business as it has a loyal client base in the country, he said.
“We are known for our excellent customer service. We have a strong network of branches and ATMs. This will also be developed further.
“And we were receiving banks for many mega IPOs in our country including the recently offered Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC). We had a good number of subscriptions being made through us … we were among the top three,” al-Shaibei said.
On International Islamic’s 2013 performance, he said, “We had a reasonable growth last year. While we had a big jump in deposits and total assets and a reasonable growth in our financing portfolio, we also had to take provisions for some investments we have made in Syria and elsewhere.”
Registering growth across various portfolios of its core business, International Islamic posted a full-year net profit of QR750mn in 2013, up 10.5% on 2012.
The bank earned a total revenue of QR1.5bn in 2013. Assets totalled QR34.4bn last year, indicating a 20.5% growth compared to 2012.
On 2014, al-Shaibei said, “We believe this year will present a lot of opportunities for us. Last year, we saw a lot tenders going out. The year before that was the one for designing various major projects. This year, we expect many projects to be awarded. At the bank, we have issued many performance bonds and bid bonds. This means the market is very promising.”
He stressed that banks’ liquidity should not be based on inter-bank funding.
“This is not a reliable source. If you borrow for the short term and then deploy money for the long-term, there will be a big mismatch. We must avoid that,” al-Shaibei said.
The Qatari banking system, he said, is strong. “In Qatar, we have a well developed banking regulatory framework, which is of truly global standards. Our regulators are all very competent. Also, we undergo stress tests periodically. We are certainly in good shape,” al-Shaibei said.
