First Gulf Bank to raise capital to AED 1 Billion

It was decided to call for an Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled on Tuesday 21 of June 2005 to discuss the Board's recommendation to increase the bank's Capital and details on capital restructuring.

HH Sheikh Mansoor, Chairman of the Board said," First Gulf Bank has made remarkable growth and achievements over the last five years. The bank succeeded in recording high net profit, introducing new diversified and improved financial services, as well as excel in its business and financial performance positioning itself as one of the leading banks in the UAE. The increase in capital is in line with the future growth, and expansion plans."

The bank plans to expand and further diversify its portfolio growing the Corporate, Retail, and Investment Banking, increasing its customer base and providing new services. Furthermore, the increase in capital will reflect positively on the capital adequacy ratio.

CEO of FGB Abdulhamid Saeed said "Once the EGM approves the Board of Directors recommendations to increase capital to one billion dirhams, FGB will be considered one of the large national banks in the UAE in terms of equity and capital, and capital adequacy will exceed Basel 2 requirements and will enable the bank to continue with its expansion plans."

The financial table below illustrates the bank's achievement in the last four years. It is evident that the bank has increased its business more than five times since 2000, achieving outstanding results in its net profits of AED 50 million in the year 2000 to AED 245 million in 2004. The Earning Per Share has grown from 14 fils to 56 fils in 2004. The first quarter results has also shown remarkable achievements where the bank has recorded a 109% growth in net profit to 107million compared to the same period of last year.