Al Baraka Group FY22 net profit zooms 52%

Al Baraka Group yesterday announced fourth quarter and full year 2022 results, reporting profit that rose, which the company attributed to strong performance across the Group’s subsidiaries and investment activities, despite ongoing market volatility throughout the year.

The group also said that considering the economic situation in Lebanon, ABG does not intend, for the foreseeable future, to inject any further capital in Al Baraka Lebanon; this is effectively a loss of control over the subsidiary.

Accordingly, Al Baraka Lebanon was classified as Investments in the financial statements of ABG, rather than being fully consolidated.

Q4 results

The Group announced a net income attributable to shareholders of the parent company of US$17 million for the fourth quarter of 2022 compared with US$15 m for the fourth quarter of 2021, an increase of 17%.

Basic and diluted earnings per share for the quarter was US Cents (0.03) compared with US Cents (0.09) in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The Group’s net income for the fourth quarter was US$32 m compared with US$39 m in the prior year period, down 17%.

Full year results

Net income attributable to shareholders of the parent company was US$143 m, up 52% from US$94 m for the same period in 2021.

This reflects a strong performance across the Group’s subsidiaries with significant contributions from its Units in Egypt, Turkey and Jordan.

It also reflects continued solid income generation from the Group’s financing and investment activities, despite ongoing market volatility throughout the year.

Earnings per share was US Cents 9.06 compared with US Cents 5.17 for the prior year. Total net income was US$239 m, compared with US$157 m in 2021, showing an increase of 52%.

Total operating income was US$1.1 billion versus US$993 m in the full year 2021, up 15%. Growth in profit was predominantly driven by higher income generation achieved by the Group’s Units.

Profitability was also supported by success in the Group’s efforts over the year to control costs, which saw total expenses remain stable at US$522 m in 2022 versus US$524 m in the prior year despite high inflationary environment.

Commenting, Shaikh Abdullah Saleh Kamel, Chairman of ABG, said, “Despite volatility, our Units across the board have shown great resilience delivering strong performance and increased contributions.

This is down to ongoing efforts to enhance efficiency through investments in digitalisation and automation in addition to tight costs management.

Going forward, we will continue to focus our strategy on further streamlining our business and delivering even stronger performance as underscored by these results.”

Houssem Ben Haj Amor, Group CEO at ABG, added, “While conditions globally and in our markets have remained challenging thus far in 2023, we expect a cooling-off in inflation and a gradual easing of profit rates later in the year.

This will provide grounds for better performance.

We have entered the year with strong momentum and look forward to building on our results in the forthcoming periods.”