Dunia posts 49% increase in first half profit

Dubai: Dunia Finance (Dunia), an Abu Dhabi headquartered finance company on Tuesday reported a net profit of Dh82.6 million up 49 per cent from Dh55.6 million for the same period last year.

Dunia’s unaudited results for the first half of the year reported that the revenues surged by 36 per cent to Dh225.7 million compared to Dh166.4 million in the same period last year. Expense grew by 15 per cent during the same period to Dh79.6 million versus Dh69.1 million in the prior year.

“Dunia’s strong growth momentum in the first half of 2014 as in previous years, once again endorses our business approach of ensuring a focus on our customers evolving needs,” said Salem Rashid Al Noaimi, Chairman of Dunia’s Board.

Company’s balance sheet grew further in the first half the year with 44 per cent growth in total customer asset and liability footings which reached Dh1.85 billion of June 30, 2014, compared to Dh1.28 billion in the same period last year.

Dunia said its customer numbers grew 20 per cent to 150,400 in the fist half of the year while customer deposits increased 42 per cent to Dh620.9 million from Dh436.7 million in the first half of 2013.

While the company’s cost income ratio improved to 35.3 per cent in the first half of this year from 41.6 per cent in the same period last year, its return on average shareholders’ equity improved to 33.2 per cent from 29.1 per cent in the prior period.

“The 2014 first half performance has been incredibly satisfying, not only because of our strong positive growth in top-line and bottom-line numbers while ensuring extremely healthy growth on financial ratios like return on assets and return on equity, but also because our customers once again positively endorsed us for delivering strongly on key service satisfaction and value metrics,” said Rajeev Kakar, Managing Director and CEO of Dunia.

Dunia’s capital adequacy stood at 40.5 per cent on a net worth basis at the end of June 2014. The company announced an interim dividend of Dh24 per share which is 50 per cent higher than the interim dividend declared in 2013.