AFS net profit for 2009 surges 275% to $4.3m

Arab Financial Services Company (AFS), the Bahrain-based provider of electronic payments and consumer finance outsourcing services, said its net profit jumped 275 per cent to $4.3 million (Dh15.79m) in 2009 compared to $1.1m in the previous year.

The company said this was achieved on a gross revenue of $17.4m, up 16 per cent year-on-year, noting that its core card processing business also grew by 16 per cent to $15.8m. It declared a dividend of $0.47 per share.

Chairman Hassan Juma said the excellent 2009 results were brought about by a focus on the core business offering, the customer and an appreciation of the role of information technology.

"In 2009, we continued to concentrate on achieving our aspiration of becoming the provider of choice for payment card processing in the region as we have done since 1984, and as we will do for the next 25 years. This ongoing focus has enabled us to deliver an excellent set of results and to make significant progress towards our strategic objectives," he said.

CEO Shankar Sharma acknowledged that continuous investment in technology and in people is key and played a significant role in the sound results for 2009.

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