Waha Capital Reports Net Profit of AED466.9 m in 2015

Waha Capital has reported a net profit of AED466.9 million for the first nine months of 2015. Earnings were driven by the performance of key portfolio investments AerCap Holdings, Dunia Group and the capital markets division.

Net profit for the nine-month period was 31 percent higher than an adjusted net profit of AED355.9 million achieved in the first nine months of 2014, after taking out net non-recurring items, primarily the one-off gain that the company recorded last year on its stake in AerCap Holdings. The nine-months net profit was also 102 percent higher than the net profit of AED230.8 million that was recorded in the corresponding nine-month period of 2013. .

Waha Capital, which manages direct Principal Investments as well as global securities portfolios, recorded a third quarter net profit of AED117.9 million. .

Commenting on the results, announced following a board meeting in Abu Dhabi, Hussain Jasim Al Nowais, Chairman of Waha Capital, said, "Waha Capital is performing very well against a difficult global macro-economic and markets backdrop. We are benefiting from an increasingly diversified portfolio, which includes investments in solid, well-managed companies.

The company has a strong balance sheet and will invest further in some of the fastest growing sectors of the regional economy. We are confident that Waha Capital will continue to create substantial long-term shareholder value through this strategy." .

Salem Rashid Al Noaimi, CEO and Managing Director of Waha Capital, added, "We are in a strong financial position, which allows us to focus on growing and further diversifying our assets. Our investment teams are assessing new direct investment opportunities in energy, .

infrastructure, healthcare and education, and current market conditions mean that this is an opportune period to deploy capital in these areas. Waha Capital’s Capital Markets Division will also begin to market its public equities and credit funds to regional investors in the coming weeks, marking the launch of a new fee-generating business." .

During the first nine months of 2015, Waha Capital continued to benefit from an increase in earnings per share at AerCap Holdings following the New York-listed company’s acquisition of International Lease Finance Corporation in May 2014. .

AerCap, in which Waha Capital owns a 13.6 percent stake, reported a net profit of $914.5 million for the first nine months of 2015, a 78.5 percent increase from a year earlier. Earnings per share increased 41.9 percent to $4.44 over that nine-month period. During that period, AerCap signed lease agreements for 216 aircraft and executed sale and part-out transactions for 55 aircraft. .

Dunia Finance, in which Waha Capital owns a 25 percent stake, recorded net income of AED 165.9 million for the first nine months of 2015, a 25 percent year-on-year rise, as low interest rates continue to increase demand for consumer financing. The company now has a customer base of 199,000 and achieved 39.2 percent growth in its loan portfolio in the year to 30 September 2015. In that period, customer deposits have also witnessed strong growth, increasing by 52.9 percent year on year to AED 1.1 billion as at 30th September 2015. .

The Capital Markets Division of Waha Capital generated income of AED167.4 million in the first nine months, and launched equities and fixed income funds that will be offered to third-party investors during the fourth quarter of this year. Despite volatility in global financial markets in recent months, the fixed income portfolio has generated a cumulative return of 58.4% since its inception in 2012 and a year-to-date return of 7.6%. The equity portfolio has generated a cumulative return of 44.3% since its inception in January 2014, and a year-to-date return of 9.8%.