Largest Islamic bank aims to provide first dividend by 2016

Founded in 2006 by Kuwait’s Boubyan Bank, BLME has not paid a dividend, but its net distributable reserves are expected to reach a sufficient level in 2015, chief executive Humphrey Percy said.

“We have been constrained from having net distributable reserves...

“We expect this to change...not in 2014, but only in 2015,” he said.

Asked whether a dividend would be paid in 2016, Percy replied: “Absolutely, based on current forecasts...This is what we anticipate.”

London-based BLME, which provides corporate banking and wealth management services, posted a net profit of £4m in the first half of 2014, up from £1m during the same period last year.

This was aided by diversification of revenue streams, with the corporate banking division seeing its total operating income grow 32.5 per cent from a year earlier.

The Dubai-listed bank has reduced its reliance on short-term funding sources: deposits with maturities of more than one year now account for 34 per cent of total deposits, up from 20 per cent a year earlier.

BLME had total assets worth £1.3bn as of June, a 13 per cent rise year-on- year.

The bank opened a Dubai representative office in the third quarter of last year and listed its shares on Nasdaq Dubai in October, becoming the first new equity listing in Dubai for over four years.