Venture Capital Bank achieves net profit of $39m for the first nine months of 2008

The results reflect the Banks' high performance and the effectiveness of the diversification of investments by implementing the bank's Board approved plan.

Commenting on the results for the third quarter, Dr. Ghassan Ahmed Al Sulaiman, Chairman of VCBank said:

"VCBank's net profit for the third quarter reached $39m with an increase of $7.5m showing a 24% growth compared to the half year results ending 30 June 2008 which were $31.5m."

"The outstanding financial results we achieved are a success that compliments VCBank strategy in investing in promising small to Medium sized potential companies through different sectors, in addition to selecting Real Estate projects with high potential opportunities. Our exceptional performance for the first nine months of 2008 shows more success and we are expecting even better results for the last quarter of this year."

added Dr. Al Sulaiman.

From his side, Mr. Abdullatif Mohammed Janahi, Board Member and CEO of VCBank commented:
"The diversity of our income sources and achievement of more investment deals through new projects contributed in accomplishing the best results for the last nine months of year 2008, where the banks' total assets for this period grew to reach $233m, a rise of 74.3% compared to total assets of $173m for the same period of year 2007. The 2008 nine months total asset has exceeded the total bank assets for the last year (2007) of which were $222m".

"In line with the bank's strategy in diversifying the investment portfolio and creating new steady strategic partnerships, VCBank signed a partnership deal with Tamkeen (Labour Fund Bahrain) and Bahrain Development Bank to establish a Venture Capital Fund that aims to channel funding in the form of equity investment to nurture and grow promising existing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across multiple industries in the Kingdom of Bahrain. This partnership will allow us to strengthen our business model which differentiates VCBank from other Islamic financial institutions."added Mr. Janahi.