Dunia Finance announces record revenues and profit for FY2011

Dunia Finance LLC (dunia), the leading Abu Dhabi based financial services company, has announced its audited financial results for the year ended 31 December 2011. The milestone year saw dunia break even in March, three months ahead of schedule, and generate the highest revenues, profits and Return on Equity levels in its short three-year history. The company was also able to significantly reduce expenses while maintaining prudent impairment reserves and improving loss absorption capacity.

Commenting on the impressive figures achieved in 2011, Executive Director and CEO of Dunia Finance, Rajeev Kakar said: “2011 was, by all standards, a record year for dunia. It was our first year of full profitability and our performance across the board has been phenomenal. Our strategies of prudent and targeted asset growth, balanced risk approach, and proactive cost management along with the innovative approach we have towards alliance creation and product development have all proven highly effective. To achieve this in such a challenging and volatile macro environment, and having launched in the midst of the worse financial crisis in history, is a credit to every member of the dunia family and to the vision of our founding shareholders.”

Along with the strong balance-sheet performance, dunia also reiterated its strong commitment to developing strong human capital and being a good corporate citizen, aspects the company believes give it a strategic advantage and that are imperative for sustainable growth. The company continues to invest considerable resources on training and development programmes, Emiritisation efforts, promoting diversity, and numerous initiatives that address social, educational and environmental issues.

Revenues

For the full year ending 31 December 2011, dunia’s total revenue reached AED 205 million, representing a 94% increase year on year. dunia’s customer base also grew significantly, by 54% during 2011, versus the prior year.

This substantial growth in revenues is attributed to dunia’s revenue diversification strategy which saw the company add a range of new products and transaction services, ramp up cross-sell activities, and fine-tune its 360 degree customer-centric approach to ensure customer needs are truly understood.

Profitability

Profits increased from a prior year loss of 88 million to reach a positive net income of AED 18 million during the full year of 2011, after the company delivered break-even in March of 2011, three months ahead of plan. This represents a Positive Net income swing of AED 106 million compared to 2010. The company successfully sharpened its acquisition and growth strategies and further focused on its strategic cost management initiatives to be a low cost provider, in line with the anticipatory steps taken by management to deliver predictable and sustained growth. This full year profit also translates into the company delivering its maiden positive Return on Equity, reaching 6.6% on a full year basis. During the last quarter of 2011, the ROE was higher at 15.2%, signaling continued strong return on equity in the year ahead.

Costs

dunia's ongoing focus on expense reduction led to a drop in expenses versus the prior year of AED 19 million during 2011, showing a 12% improvement over 2010. The company also managed to more than halve its cost to income ratio to 65%.This expense reduction, together with the strong revenue growth of 94%, led to dunia delivering a strong positive operating leverage of 106% in 2011, versus prior year. 

dunia also delivered strong performance in all risk management parameters with cost of credit sharply down at 11%, versus 15% in 2010, and a comfortable impairment provision of 4%  to receivables. dunia also strongly improved its loss-absorption capabilities more than threefold (223%) in 2011, versus prior year.

dunia’s prudent policies regarding loss recognition and impairment reserve allotment & provisioning, coupled with improved cost of credit, funding & portfolio credit quality, and positive operating leverage will ensure long-term viability, reduce risk, and maintain excellent liquidity.

Outlook

dunia also announced its maiden dividend in 2011 of AED 5 per share of AED 1,000 face value. According to Mr. Kakar, "This dividend announcement is a measure of the confidence of the board and management in the continued growth and strong performance of the company in the times ahead. dunia is well on the path of continued growth and a strong trajectory even in the years ahead. The progress we made in enriching our proposition and enhancing our capabilities, the investments in our brand, people & communities, and our innovative diversification strategies, will all ensure that dunia continues to deliver sustainable, predictable and consistent growth and profitability. Hopefully, as global credit and finance markets return to some form of stability in 2012 and 2013, we foresee regional markets to improve significantly, further reflecting very well on our business, which continues to perform strongly even in the face of headwinds. So, as the macro environment improves, we should do even better.”