Dunia Group Reports 6th Consecutive Year of Profit

•    Dunia Finance 2016 operating income increases 12% to AED 806.8 million
•    Customer-centric strategy leads to a 21% increase in total dunia customers in 2016   
•    Board of Directors recommends a dividend of AED 56 million

Abu Dhabi [9 April 2017]: Dunia Group today released its audited full year financial results for the 12-month period ended 31st December 2016, reporting a full year profit of AED 73.1 million. This included Dunia Finance LLC (dunia) reporting a net profit of AED 71.3 million and Dunia Services FZ LLC reporting a net profit of AED 1.8 million. 

Dunia Group recorded operating income of AED 879.2 million in 2016, an increase of 7.3% over the same period in 2015and net profit of AED 73.1 million. Underpinning the company’s performance in 2016 was dunia’s customer-centric strategy aimed at deepening relationships through first class service, bespoke financial solutions, and intelligent use of technology. 

Dunia Group announced an aggregate dividend of AED 56 million for 2016, maintaining a six-year track record of dividend distribution. This reflects not only the company’s success, predictability and resilience of its business model, but also the management and Board’s confidence in dunia’s future growth prospects.
 
During 2016, dunia’s continued focus on enhancing the entire customer experience led to a 21% increase in customers. Total customer assets were prudently maintained in line with dunia’s risk management strategy at the prior year level of AED 1.96 billion. dunia’s balance sheet remains strong with a growth in cash and deposits of 54% over the prior year to AED 202.5 million, reflecting the company’s prudent liquidity management. 

Greater operational efficiencies and tight process control resulted in dunia’s cost-income ratio declining to 14% in 2016 from 28% in 2015. As of 31st December 2016, dunia maintained a healthy 31.5% capital adequacy level, significantly higher than the regulatory required 15% capital adequacy ratio, underlining the company’s focus on sound risk management principles and overall standards of governance. Reflecting the underlying strength of the business, international ratings agency Fitch affirmed dunia’s Long Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘BB’ with a stable outlook, noting the company’s prudent leverage, wide net interest margin and comfortable liquidity position. 

Commenting on the results, Salem Rashid Al Noaimi, Chairman of dunia, said: “The company delivered another sound performance in 2016 as we continued to focus on operational efficiencies and enhancing the overall dunia experience despite the uncertain global economy and subdued commodity prices. We head into the new financial year with our business in robust shape and a strong portfolio of products and services. Our strength remains our people, and I am truly grateful for their ongoing commitment, dedication and drive.”

Rajeev Kakar, Managing Director and CEO, said: “The macro-economic environment experienced in 2016 led to us taking a number of timely strategic actions to realign business priorities that have helped to ensure continued predictable and profitable returns on a sustained basis. Our ability to confidently navigate the uncertainties of 2016 highlights the resilience of our unique customer-centric business model and the robustness of our operations, demonstrating that dunia can grow and succeed in even the most challenging of times. Despite such conditions, we continued to invest, attracting new customers while also deepening existing customer relationships by leveraging big data analytics which provides a better understanding of our customers’ needs. This enabled us to specifically tailor products to a loyal and growing customer base.”