The volatile international financial and credit markets have adversely affected the bottom line of Manama-based Gulf International Bank (GIB), whose net profits fell 15 percent in 2002. The bank’s net income totaled $85.3 million last year, as compared to $100.5 million in financial year 2001. The bank’s total assets reached $16.236 billion at year end-2002, up 6.6 percent from $15.232 billion reported at the end of FY01.
Established in 1975, GIB is a wholesale commercial and investment-banking group, with operations in the Middle East, Europe, North America and the Far East. The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) governments—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—own 72.5 percent of the bank, while the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) and J. P. Morgan Overseas Capital Corporation own 22.2 percent and 5.3 percent respectively.
In 1999, GIB acquired the London-based Saudi International Bank and has branches in London, New York and Riyadh, in addition to representative offices in Singapore, Beirut and Abu Dhabi. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
