United Arab Emirates (UAE) investment bank SHUAA Capital held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) yesterday in Dubai. Shareholders were informed of developments during the annual financial year, ending March 31, 2002, which showed an operating profit of 5.8 million Emirati dirhams ($1.57 million).
SHUAA Capital has recently concluded the acquisition of a 55 percent stake in Gulf Finance Corporation, a licensed finance company, in addition to acquiring 50 percent of the UAE's premier brokerage house, Emirates Commercial Center.
SHUAA Capital also recently launched two new investment funds: Al Thiqa Fund, a fund focused on UAE equities and open to all investors including non-UAE nationals, and The Arab Income Fund (TAIF), focused primarily on Arab fixed income securities and targeted primarily towards financial institutions and insurance companies.
SHUAA Capital's Chairman Majid Saif Al-Ghurair addressed the AGM said that despite the impact of global and regional events on regional capital markets and investment portfolios, SHUAA Capital managed to significantly increase its revenues to Dh31.6 million from Dh13.7 million in 2000 and to increase total consolidated assets by 30 percent to Dh530 million.
SHUAA Capital's CEO Iyad Duwaji explained that global economic slowdown had diminished the value of international, regional and local Information Technology (IT) companies, which required a provision of Dh4.5 million from the operating profit. Therefore SHUAA Capital will end the year with a net profit of Dh1.1 million.
Duwaji nevertheless expressed his confidence that the current strategic plan, which aims at diversifying the sources of the company's income to include advisory services and fund management, has been successful in its first year. He noted that the fees collected from these two activities increased by 280 percent to reach six million Dh in 2001. There was an increase of 241 percent in client funds under management, reaching Dh251 million this year.
The year 2001 also witnessed the launch of corporate finance activities and the conclusion of several mandates, most important of which was the underwriting and placement of an Dh110 million bridge loan facility arranged by SHUAA Capital to finance the acquisition of Aramex International Limited.
Responding to a question about the company's allocation of assets and investments, Duwaji indicated that about 50 percent of the company's investments are in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and 33 percent are in other Arab countries, namely Egypt and Jordan, with the remaining 17 percent invested in Europe and the United States. He also added that the allocation of assets was almost equally balanced between fixed income securities, publicly traded equities and private equity investments.
SHUAA Capital is a public shareholding company located in Dubai and operates as a financial investment company specializing in the Arab region in general, and the UAE and the GCC markets in particular. In addition to investing its own capital, SHUAA Capital's activities include underwriting of securities and other corporate finance activities, investment advisory services, asset and portfolio management and brokerage in local and international securities. The company's consolidated assets total Dh530 million and its shares are traded on the Dubai Financial Market and the Kuwait Stock Exchange.
SHUAA Capital was established in 1979, originally as an investment company to invest in, and promote investment into, the Arab World. It has since pursued its investment strategy by focusing initially on private equity investments and proprietary trading in Arab listed securities, and later on the UAE and GCC markets.
SHUAA Capital was licensed by the Central Bank in 2000 to offer a broad range of financial services and products in the UAE. Those services include underwriting of securities and other corporate finance activities, investment advisory services, fund and portfolio management; and brokerage of local and international securities.
Formerly known by its acronyms AGICO and SHUAA, the company assumed a new identity in April 2001 to consolidate both names and to identify itself more closely as a regional provider of high-quality financial advisory and management services to private and institutional investors. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
