Qatari Investors Group Q.P.S.C. (QIGD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello and welcome to the Qatari Investors Group Conference Call. I would like to advise all participants this call is being recorded. Thank you. I'd now like to welcome Roy Thomas to begin the conference. Roy, over to you.

Thanks, Kevin. Hello, everyone. This is Roy Thomas from QNB Financial Services. I want to welcome everyone to Qatari Investors Group Year-end 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. On this call from Qatari Investors Group, we have Joseph Abdo the Chief Executive Officer; and Ahmed Tawfiq, the Chief Financial Officer. We will conduct this conference call with management first reviewing the company's results followed by Q&A. I will turn the call now over to Joseph Abdo. Go ahead, Joseph.

Thank you, Roy. Hello, everybody. I will deliver a small resume in English, then the same in Arabic before moving to the Q&A. Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the earnings call of Qatari Investor Group, known as QIG. My name is Joseph Abdo, the CEO of the group. And here with me Mr. Ahmed Tawfiq, our CFO. We are pleased to present to you the annual results of QIG Group for 2022. We will highlight the financial performance of the group and the progress that have been realized during the year. The group achieved a total revenue amounting to QAR 744 million for the year ending December 31, 2022, which is higher than the last year by 8%. This growth was led mainly by project development, property, contracting and technology sectors. The group net profit for the period amounted to QAR 190 million, a 4% increase as compared to last year. This growth was effectively supported by operational optimization strategies that enhanced our gross margin profit by 25% and creating saving opportunities at different levels of OpEx to ensure higher returns to our shareholders. Group EBITDA reached to QAR 319 million, which is 12% higher than last year due to operational excellence in the management of different sectors. Our aim will continue to maintain a sustainable growth in the group bottom line and create value for its shareholders. The earnings per share amounted to QAR 0.15 for the year ended December 31, '22, compared to also QAR 0.15, almost the same for previous year. Accordingly, the Board of Directors of the group proposed a cash dividend distribution of 15% of the paid up capital amounting to QAR 186 million for the year ended December 31, '22, which is subject to the approval by the shareholders in the general assembly meeting. Finally, we are focusing our efforts for the next year on activities mainly related to logistics, transportation, marine and security services. In addition, we will continue to be committed and support the strategy of diversification in investments during the year to make more achievements that benefit the group and make us play a role in supporting Qatar's economic vision. Thank you, and I'll move to the Arabic. [Foreign Language] Thank you very much. We are open for your Q&A, please.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of [ Anastasios Dalgiannakis ] from Al Faisal Investments.

Basically, I wanted to ask on the -- you said the revenue was driven by development of property and contracting. Now we have heard from several banking companies releasing earnings about stress in the contracting segment. And we also see that the operating cash flow for 2022, despite the increase in revenue, was significantly decreased. And one of the drivers was a large deterioration increase in receivables. Could you please give us a bit more color on the contracting business environment generally and a bit more for your particular business? And how do you see the -- especially the receivable picture, if you keep growing the contracting, do you expect your receivable to keep increasing?

Thank you for your question. Concerning the contracting sector, actually, it was a small diversification that we did with a company called [ ELM ], where we are in joint venture with them, and they have to execute a couple of projects before the world cup. And so far, we are limited to this scope, and we're looking for other opportunities, secured one, if it happens. On the receivable, I will pass the word to my colleague, Ahmed Tawfiq, our CFO.