Gulf Bank posts 30% decline in first-half

Gulf Bank KSC, Kuwait’s third-biggest lender, posted a 30 per cent decline in first-half profit due to an increase in the “precautionary reserve.” Net income fell to 12.8 million dinars (Dh166.5 million) from 18.3 million dinars a year earlier, the bank said in an emailed statement today. Operating profit was 58.7 million dinars in the first half of the year, while precautionary reserve was raised to 124 million dinars. The shares rose 3.9 per cent to 400 fils today in Kuwait City, before the results were announced. The stock has fallen 18 per cent this year compared with a 2.2 per cent decrease for the benchmark. Aden refinery Yemen’s Aden refinery is set to resume jet fuel exports for the first time in nearly a year as production at its refinery restarted this month, traders said today. The refinery has offered 30,000 tonnes of jet fuel for loading over August 23 to 25 in a tender that closes on August 14 and is valid until August 16. The Aden refinery resumed production after halting operations for nine months because of attacks on the country’s main oil pipeline. Two shipments of crude oil from Yemen’s Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea coast arrived in Aden in late July, enabling the refinery to resume production. It will pump crude at a reduced rate of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd), a refinery official had said earlier. Attacks on the pipeline by disgruntled tribesmen halted the flow of crude last year and forced the closure of the refinery, which has a capacity of 150,0000 bpd. This left the impoverished country dependent on fuel donations from Saudi Arabia and on imports. But despite the restart of the refinery, traders say, Yemen will continue to rely on imports for its fuel needs as it will take a while for the refinery to operate at full capacity. Egypt will offer 5 billion Egyptian pounds (Dh3.02 billion) of treasury bonds as the president ordered the retirement of two top military generals and after the cancellation of a debt sale yesterday. Dollar bonds rose. The country will offer three- and five-year notes valued at 2 billion pounds each, according to central bank data on Bloomberg. It will also sell 1 billion pounds of 10-year securities. The average yield on three-year notes was little changed at 16.15 per cent at the previous sale. The country yesterday cancelled the sale of nine-month treasury bills after Qatar agreed to deposit $2 billion with Egypt’s central bank. The average yield on the notes had jumped six basis points at an auction last week, its first gain in six sales, to 15.71 per cent, or 25 basis points away from June’s record high. The yield on Egypt’s 5.75 per cent dollar-denominated bonds due in April 2020 fell for the second time in three days, losing four basis points to 6.18 per cent at 11.09am in Cairo, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. That’s near the lowest level since November. Qatar Investment Authority Qatar Investment Authority, owner of Qatar Holding LLC, today said it bought 785,501 shares in diversified mining group Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN) at £9.2449, lifting its total holding, including options, to 343,990,824 shares, or 11.456 per cent. Qatar’s holding, excluding options, is 18,564,243 shares, or 0.618 per cent. Gulf Petrochem Group Gulf Petrochem Group has announced the appointment of Captain Paul E.W. Nix as head of the company’s oil terminal in Fujairah. The appointment comes in line with preparations ahead of the completion and inauguration of the $136 million (Dh499.5 million) Fujairah oil terminal, which is expected to start operations in October 2012 with 1.2 million cubic meters of storage capacity. Captain Nix has extensive experience managing various storage terminals in Spain, the Netherlands, Bahrain, South Africa, and India in a professional career spanning 36 years and will oversee the rest of the construction work and the maintenance of the Fujairah oil terminal. Prior to joining Gulf Petrochem, Captain Nix was responsible for the operational design and organisation of a storage facility under construction in Algeciras, Spain. Gulf Extrusions Gulf Extrusions, one of the largest aluminium extrusion plants in the Gulf region, has announced that in response to rapidly growing demand in key export markets, the exports to India have increased by 300 per cent in 2012 compared to 2011, establishing the Indian market as a key destination in the global expansion strategy of the company. The GCC and African markets have likewise contributed to the increase in production, with projected growth rates of 7 per cent and 6 per cent respectively, in 2012. Gulf Extrusions also said that the increase in production is part of the company’s strategy of diversifying its product range and markets to cater to a much wider customer base across different industry sectors such as construction, oil and gas, marine, automotive and telecom. From gulftoday