Shuaa posts record quarterly earnings

Dubai: Shuaa Capital, the Dubai-based investment bank that helped arrange the $5 billion DP World IPO, posted a record quarterly profit on higher revenue from its investment banking and asset management business.

Net income in the three months to December 31 rose more than four-fold to Dh213.02 million ($58 million), almost twice as much as its previous record, the 29-year-old investment bank said.

Third-quarter revenue jumped 310 per cent to Dh394 million, it said. Shuaa's fiscal year begins on April 1.

"It's partly linked to that," chief operating officer Kerim Mitri said of the profit surge and the DP World initial public offering, the Middle East's biggest.

"But a lot of other businesses contributed significantly to the bottom line," he said.

A recovery in Gulf stock markets, where Shuaa invests about 60 per cent of its clients' money, boosted asset management income in the last quarter of the year, the bank said.

Assets under management more than doubled to Dh15.58 billion at December 31, compared with just under Dh6 billion a year earlier "reflecting the strong stock market recovery and asset gathering during the period, especially into the new Saudi Gateway Fund", the bank said.

Saudi Arabia's main index surged about 44 per cent during the final three months of 2007, recovering some of its 2006 losses when it lost more than half its value.

The DP World IPO closed in November. Dubai Islamic Bank unit Millennium Capital, Deutsche Bank AG and Merrill Lynch & Co were the other arrangers.

Fees and commissions are Shuaa's biggest source of revenue, after income from investment securities.

It's partly linked to that [the DP World IPO]. But a lot of other businesses contributed significantly to the bottom line.