Khaleeji Commercial Bank (KHCB), one of Bahrain's leading Islamic banks, held a press conference on Wednesday in Kuwait announcing the listing of its shares on the Bahrain Stock Exchange. The event, held at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, was followed by a lunch attended by members of the media, analysts, investors and brokers. Speaking at the conference, Dr. Fuad Abdullah Al-Omar, chairman of Khaleeji Commercial Bank, said: “The listing will transform the Bank from a closed to a public joint stock company which will allow KHCB to venture into new Shariah-compliant investment opportunities which in turn will benefit our shareholders. This will also benefit the bank in expanding its investment portfolio in the region and beyond.” Ebrahim H. Ebrahim, CEO and board member of KHCB, said: “We aim to capitalize several investment opportunities in the region due to large-scale public and private spending backed by high oil revenues. The Bank plans to expand further into the MENA region as well as other parts of the world including Asia which will help with our vision in expanding the Bank's portfolio of assets.” KHCB recently reported strong results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2008. Net income for the quarter increased by 213 percent to BD12.6 million compared to BD 4 million for the corresponding period in 2007. Total assets grew by 187 percent to BD308.5 million and customer deposits increased by 130 percent as of March 2008. On an annualized basis, return on average assets was 17.4 percent, and return on average equity was 39.9 percent. The bank also distributed a cash dividend of 15 percent for the year 2007. __
