QInvest, a leading private investment group in Qatar, has posted operating profits of $50million (QR182 million) for the first nine months of the year, up 19 per cent over the same period of 2015.

The company attributed the rise to increased fee income, exits in the firm’s investments and investment activities across its different business lines.

Revenues increased to $92.5 million (QR337 million) up 18 per cent compared to the same period in 2015.

QInvest has maintained its robust balance sheet with $189 million (QR687 million) of liquidity and regulatory capital adequacy ratio of 35 per cent.

Tamim Hamad Al-Kawari, chief executive officer of QInvest, said: “Our results over the first nine months of this year and our overall performance over the last three years have come directly as a result of our strategy to build a diversified portfolio of investments, grow our assets under management and provide best in class products and advisory services to our clients across all of our business lines.”

“We remain cautious in the face of continued market volatility and after conducting a thorough review of our portfolio, we have exited a number of higher risk financing investment sat a significant profit and increased our risk buffers for the remaining portfolio. These profitable exits have enabled to crystallise double digit returns in part of our balance sheet as well as build a strong cash balance to take advantage of future opportunities in a market where liquidity commands a premium.”

Looking more closely at QInvest’s business lines, the Investment Banking and Real Estate Advisory businesses are showing the strongest pipeline to date, with mandates across equity, debt, and M&A transactions among regional institutional and family office clients.

In the year, QInvest completed two landmark transactions with the sale of Miramax to beIN Media Group and the acquisition of a stake in the Empire State Building owner by one of its clients. There are significant transaction flows driven by the lack of regional liquidity and QInvest is ideally positioned to support clients and shareholders with capital and best in class execution.

In the previous quarter, QInvest created a separate Credit Investments and Debt Finance business and is working on a number of mandates to raise financing for clients, both from banks and through Sukuk, taking advantage of the still favourable rate environment and to monetize their investments.

Centralizing credit activity under one umbrella allows QInvest to benefit from best practice capital allocation and portfolio management as well as offer clients the full suite of financing solutions either stand alone or as part of a wider co-operation with other market participants.

The Real Estate principal investment unit has continued to focus on defensive yielding equity opportunities in addition to conservative financing capital deployment. The geographic focus remains the US, Germany/western Europe, and the UK on an opportunistic basis.

The business is in the process of closing two high yielding financing transaction which will deliver strong risk-adjusted returns in 2016 and 2017. Additionally, the business is looking to invest into co-sponsored general partnership platform that will seek to raise capital from limited partners. The investment structure will focus on multifamily transactions in the .US

The Asset Management team has continued to enjoy a strong year with AUM growth across a number of strategies. Performance across the division’s funds and portfolios remains strong despite highly volatile markets over the summer months, with the post Post-FTSE inclusion sell off in the GCC, the failed coup attempt in Turkey and a number of headlines indicating a “hard” Brexit.

 These events have served to show the value added by active management in challenging markets. There has been a strong focus on new product development in partnership with international fund managers. The Asset Management team in Doha continued the integration effort of QInvestPortfoy with the Doha and Istanbul offices now operating closer as one team.

There have also been a number of positive developments in terms of developing new distribution channels with the team adding one of Turkey’s fastest growing brokerage hoes to distribute QInvest’s onshore Turkish funds, and the addition of a new banc-assurance channel in the GCC to distribute the QMAP fund range. – TradeArabia News Service