Kuwait's corporate sector health improves

01/12/2013 15:23 AST

NBK says the financial results of Kuwaiti listed companies point to an improvement in the health of Kuwait’s corporates. Growth during the first nine months of 2013 continued to be driven by better results in both financial services and the real estate sector. Both had been hit severely by the financial crisis and have since made notable recoveries.

The reported earnings of 170 Kuwaiti companies listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) totalled KWD 1.16 billion during the first nine months of 2013 (9M13). Profits were up a very decent 14 per cent from the year before, on a same-company-basis. Most of the growth came from a drop in total losses reported by companies that continued to suffer the consequences of the 2009 economic slowdown.

The number of companies reporting losses and their aggregate losses continued to shrink. Only 26 companies reported that they were in the red this year compared to 48 during the same period last year. The aggregate losses reported by these companies shrank more dramatically, from KWD 148 million last year to only KWD 25 million this year.

Bottom-line growth of profitable companies was less impressive. Companies that reported positive profits both last year and this year saw profits shrink by two per cent on declining telecoms and bank profits. Other sectors saw growth in earnings. This was also visible in the drop in the profits of the KSE15 index by 4.4 per cent. Nevertheless, banking and telecoms remain the largest contributors to total profits.

Meanwhile, financial services reported profits of KWD 107 million, more than double what was reported last year. Nevertheless, it remains the sector with the largest number of loss-making companies. Around a third of the sector’s companies have yet to announce their results while some have been delisted from the exchange after cumulative losses reached 75 per cent of their capital.

Real estate companies seem to have recovered well and aggregate profits for the sector almost doubled compared to the same period last year. The pickup in company profits mirrors the recovery we have seen in Kuwait’s real estate sector in general, particularly in residential and investment property.

Companies in the consumer goods and consumer services sectors also saw decent increases in profits thanks to a healthy consumer sector. Still, these two sectors remain relatively small and have little noticeable impact on the aggregates.

Equity prices were mostly flat in response to reported results, dragged down by the less impressive results in the dominant sectors. The value-weighted index was little changed during the reporting period. The telecommunication index was off five per cent. Meanwhile, the financial services index was up a strong four per cent buoyed by the stronger results there.

CPI Financial