Kuwait Finance House (KFH), the Gulf state’s largest Islamic lender, on Sunday posted a 26.9 per cent drop in its first-quarter net profit, missing analyst forecasts.
The lender made KD22.6m ($81.88m) in the three months ending March 31, compared with a net profit of KD30.9m dinars in the comparable period one year earlier, the company said in a statement on Sunday.
Two analysts polled by Reuters estimated that KFH’s net profit would range between KD36.3m and KD37m for the first-quarter. Total assets for the lender came in at KD12.7b.
In March, Kuwait Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign funds in the Gulf, said KFH would manage a KD1b real estate portfolio. KFH’s units have also been active in plans to issue Islamic bonds. A newspaper reported this month that its unit Liquidity Management House is in the process of issuing $1b in Islamic bonds, or sukuk.
In March, KFH's Turkish unit said it will launch a $500m Islamic bond by the end of the year.
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