Dunia Finance announces record first half results

H1 2012 were underpinned by broad-based top line revenue growth, underscoring Dunia Finance's commitment to acquiring new customers and deepening customer relationships through its customer-centric strategy:
• Deposit balances were up 84% vs. H1 2011 to Dhs313m
• Customer loans and receivables up by 45.2% vs. H1 2011 to Dhs662m

Dunia Finance remains focused on enhancing its strong business fundamentals to ensure predictability and profitability of operations, which is critical for sustained growth ahead:
• Return on Equity grew to 19.2% vs. (0.3%) H1 2011
• Operating leverage is at 42.5% vs. H1 2011
• Loss absorption capacity is growing to 1.9x vs. 0.9x H1 2011

The Balance Sheet has continued to strengthen. Dunia maintains prudent provisioning policies. The total stock of portfolio impairment provisions stood at a healthy 4% of customer receivables, which provides for adequate loss absorption capacity in the event of any unexpected external stresses. The Balance Sheet also remains highly liquid, funded through an increasingly diversified and growing base of deposits and increased retained earnings through continuing operations. Dunia's Capital Adequacy remains healthy at 37.5% at the end of the First Half of 2012, which is comfortably higher than regulatory requirements.

Rajeev Kakar, Executive Director and CEO said: "Despite the continuing challenging global economic environment, Dunia Finance has performed strongly in the first half of 2012, posting record Revenues and Profit off the back of a record performance in 2011. We have strictly adhered to our strategy of remaining intensely customer-centric and this approach has resulted in our broad-based growth across a number of different segments. We have also focused heavily on rapidly growing our Balance Sheet, whilst remaining liquid and self-funded through deposits, without excessive dependence on wholesale funding sources. We remain confident in the sustainability of these profitable trends."