MANAMA, 16 March 2008 — The listed companies on the Bahrain Stock Exchange (BSE) posted strong financial gains with total profits rising to 1 billion Bahraini dinars with distributions of 404 million Bahraini dinars as cash dividends in 2007, a report released by the bourse said.
The exceptional performance by the listed companies in 2007 at BSE when most of the bourses in the GCC have failed to come up with the expectations of the investors has elevated the level of confidence of investors and the BSE expects good results at end of the Q1 of 2008.
According to BSE report, the local public shareholding companies listed on Bahrain Stock Exchange achieved a net profit of over 1 billion Bahraini dinars in 2007 in compared with 774.3 million Bahraini dinars for 2006, recording a growth of 29.7 percent. Similarly, the cash dividends of 404.5 million Bahraini dinars in 2007 compared with 350.8 million Bahraini dinars in 2006, an increase of almost 53 million Bahraini dinars.
Data released by BSE showed that all sectors achieved positive growth in their net profits with the exception of the industrial sector. The Investment sector achieved the highest net profit of 540.3 million Bahraini dinars capturing 53.8 percent of the total net profit of the local public shareholding companies. It was followed by the commercial banks sector with a net profit of 259.4 million Bahraini dinars representing 25.8 percent of the total net profit. Next came the Services sector which achieved a net profit of 162 million Bahraini dinars portraying 16.1 percent of the total profit. They were followed by the insurance sector capturing 2.4 percent, hotels and tourism sector 1.7 percent, and the industrial sector with 0.18 percent of the total net profit.
From a different perspective, the hotels and tourism sector was ranked the first with a growth rate of 64 percent, the highest among all sectors. It was followed by the Services sector with a growth of 31.6 percent, the Commercial Banks sector 30.1 percent, the Investment sector 29.6 percent, and finally the Insurance sector with an increase of 5.36 percent.
The Industrial sector’s net profit, however, declined by 0.2 percent. Abdulhameed Abdulghaffar, head of financial analysis and research department at BSE said that the 2007 dividends payout ratio was 40.3 percent in 2007 showing strong gains for the listed companies.
