UAE-headquartered Dunia Finance (Dunia) has registered a net profit of Dh73 million ($19.8 million) in 2012, up 305 per cent compared to the same period a year ago despite a challenging macro-environment.

Dunia is a JV between Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi, Fullerton Financial Holdings (wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings) of Singapore and Waha Capital of Abu Dhabi, along with a prominent business group A.A. Al Moosa Enterprises of Dubai.

Announcing the results, the Dubai group said it net revenues soared to Dh281million in FY 2012, up 37 per cent over the previous year.

"The year  was marked by further growth momentum, with revenue and profit growth driven by Dunia’s success in acquiring new customers, deepening relationships, driving cross-sell and focusing on providing world class service in line with its commitment to delivering value by buildingdeeper, and more focused relationships," it added

The strength of this customer-centric strategy is illustrated by a 28 per cent increase in total customer numbers, which in turn has led to a strong growth in customer assets of 36 per cent to Dh757 million.
 
The commensurate growth in customer deposit balances were up by 71 per cent in the period versus the previous period, reaching Dh414 million when compared to Dh242 million in FY 2011.

The highlight of Dunia’s robust balance sheet lies in its granularity, both on the asset and liabilities side, which helps ensure predictability of growth, said the company in a statement. Cash and cash equivalents grew over the period to Dh46 million reflecting prudent liquidity management, it added.

Commenting on the results, Rajeev Kakar, the executive director and CEO, said Dunia had once again delivered record financial performance in 2012 as it has done in previous years.

"While the business continues to grow in terms of profitability and customer numbers, we are particularly happy to share that our Dunia brand is now stronger, and even better recognized for our unique service standards," stated Kakar.

“We continue to invest for the future, in line with our commitment to go the extra mile for our customers, and to keep developing our talent to effectively deal with the challenges and opportunities ahead, while ensuring predictable, sustained growth,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service