GFH Financial Group announced its financial results for the past year and the fourth quarter of the year, as the results showed that a quarterly profit of $24.02 million was achieved, compared to $23.8 million in profits for the same quarter of 2021, with a slight increase of 0.6%, while the group’s profits increased by 7.2% for the full year, to reach $90.25 million, compared to $84.22 million in 2021 profits.
The GFH group said, in a statement, that the fourth-quarter profit increase resulted from calculating provisions amounting to $13.4 million and realizing the income contribution from the group's subsidiaries, in addition to the income resulting from subscriptions, fees for investment portfolios, and the sale of Infracorp sukuk.
The earnings per share of GFH Group in the fourth quarter of last year amounted to 0.72 cents, remaining unchanged from the comparative period of 2021.
As for the total income of the GFH Group in the fourth quarter of last year, it amounted to $ 147.79 million, compared to $ 128.14 million in the same quarter of 2021, an increase of 15.3%. While total expenses during the last quarter amounted to $121.56 million, compared to $103.80 million in the same period of 2021, an increase of 17.1%.
As for the increase in profits for the year 2022, the GFH Group said in the statement that it is due to the investment banking business, and the significantly enhanced contributions from our subsidiary, especially commercial banking services and infrastructure, in addition to treasury activities, explaining that the earnings per share for the year amounted to 2.65 cents compared to by 2.60 cents for the full year in 2021, an increase of 1.9%.
According to the statement, the total property rights belonging to the shareholders of the GFH Group in the past year amounted to approximately $1 billion, an increase of 3.5% from $0.96 billion at the end of 2021. The total assets of the group increased by 20.9% to $9.76 billion as of December 31, 2022 compared to $8.08 billion as of December 31, 2021.
In line with these results, the Board of Directors of GFH Group recommended the distribution of cash dividends of 6% of the nominal value in dollars (0.0159 per share), subject to obtaining the approval of the General Assembly and the regulatory authorities.
Commenting on the results, Ghazi Al-Hajri, Chairman of the Board of Directors of GFH Financial Group said: We are pleased to announce another year of progress and growth achieved by the group in 2022. Despite it being a challenging year across global markets, the group continued to diversify its activities and improve Income and profits. Gains during the year were supported by the performance of all core business lines despite market volatility and pressure from rising interest rates. The group has also continued to grow our global portfolio of assets by making significant new investments and expanding our global presence in the US and the Gulf region, where there are strong positive ingredients and a macroeconomic environment that is driving the transformation and creating strong opportunities.
For his part, Hisham Al Rayes, CEO of GFH Financial Group, stated, “This was another year of achievement for GFH Financial Group as we continued to grow our investments, strengthening our global presence and investor and shareholder base on the back of continued strong performance, market confidence in the group and our ability to Enhance results year after year. More than $1.2 billion in investments were made during the year in the Group's portfolio of student housing and medical building assets in the US. To support further growth in these sectors, we opened a new office in London during the year to serve as the headquarters for asset management in the UK and Europe. We have also acquired other specialized asset management companies in the US, Student Quarters and Big Sky Medical, to expand our income-generating activities and investments in two major sectors.
GFH currently manages more than $17.6 billion in assets and funds including a global portfolio of investments in logistics, healthcare, education and technology across the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and North America.
