Several parties have shown interest to take a stake in company: Al-Darmaki

Hareb Al-Darmaki

KUWAIT: Global Investment House ("Global" or the "Company"), a regional asset management and investment banking firm headquartered in Kuwait, with offices in major capital markets in the MENA region, yesterday announced its financial results for the nine months ended 30 September 2017 reporting a net profit of KD3.5 million ($11.5 million) compared to a net profit of KD1.6 million ($5.2 million) in 9M 2016, total revenues of KD12.1 million ($39.9 million), and fee and commission income of KD8.0 million ($26.3 million) representing 66 percent of total revenues.

Asset Management business generated KD8.4 million ($27.8 million) revenues during the 9M 2017. At 30 September 2017, Asset under Management (AUM) stood at KD949 million ($3.1 billion). During the nine months, the Real Estate Asset Management team closed two acquisitions and placement in the United Kingdom involving equity raising of GBP28 million. The company has closed a third transaction earlier this month which culminates the seventh real estate acquisition for Global in the past two and half years.

Global remains one of the largest private equity fund managers. This year, the team concluded one exit and is in the process to exit additional two companies by year end. Several funds managed by the company outperformed their respective benchmarks and peers.

The Investment Banking team generated KD0.4 million ($1.4 million) revenues from three mandates, ranging from advisory to M&A mandates. The team is currently working on several regional mandates, some are expected to close this year or first quarter of 2018.

On the brokerage front, Global made focused efforts to grow the institutional brokerage business and take advantage of high double-digit increase in market turnover. During 9M 2017, Brokerage fee revenues increased by 28 percent to KD1.0million ($3.4 million).

The company's co-investments in its own funds and other principal investments generated KD2.85 million ($9.5 million) of realized gains, dividend income and fair valuation gains.

Hareb Al-Darmaki, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said: "The company produced excellent financial results during the nine months of 2017, reporting a two-fold increase to the net profit. We have been reporting profits since Q1 2015, eleven consecutive quarters, thanks to the fee based business strategy and experienced and solid management team."

He added, "I'm confident that today Global is one of the few investment companies in the MENA region that has a healthy capital structure with no external debt and sustainable performance which have grabbed the attention of several parties to show interest to acquire a controlling stake in the company."