CBQ shares plunge after earnings declaration

Doha: Shares of Commercial Bank of Qatar, the country's second-largest lender, suffered their biggest one-day decline in at least two years on Monday after the bank reported 2007 earnings and plans to sell shares to fund growth.

The stock - which almost doubled last year - plunged 8.2 per cent, the biggest faller in Qatar's main index amid a selloff that saw the benchmark fall the most in a single day in 18 months.

Commercial Bank's net income in the three months to December 31 rose to 380 million riyals ($104.5 million), compared with 224.33 million in the year-earlier period, Reuters calculated, based on full-year results and previous financial data.

The bank will offer shareholders a 40 per cent cash dividend and 30 per cent in bonus shares, the lender said on the Qatari bourse website.

Expectations

"Shareholders expected that it would give more dividends," said Bashar Eisa, an analyst at Doha, Qatar-based Dlala Brokerage & Investment Holding, which forecast in a survey last month that Commercial Bank would make a fourth-quarter profit of 350 million riyals.

Full-year net income jumped 61 per cent to 1.39 billion riyals, said the bank, which plans to sell 3.83 billion riyals of stock to existing shareholders to finance acquisitions in the Gulf.

"We're looking for alliances and partnerships by seeking strategic stakes," chief executive officer Andrew Stevens said, saying the bank was focused on the Gulf including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain.