GCC firms’ net profits soar to record high of $196.5bln in 2021

GCC firms’ net profits soar to record high of $196.5bln in 2021

The recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and the relaxation of the restrictions globally significantly impacted economies in the GCC region supporting the robust performance in earnings for FY-2021.

Sectoral gains

Most of the sectors showed solid increase in net profits during the year. especially, the Utilities and Transportation Sector witnessed remarkable jump in net profits 2021 after suffering subpar performance during the pandemic.

Out of the 21 sectors, 4 sectors witnessed y-o-y decline in profits whereas the rest reported growth. At the exchange level, Oman was the only market which reported a decline in aggregate net profits for listed companies during FY-2021 with a fall of 3.7%.

In terms of sectors, profitability for the GCC banking sector reached one of the highest yearly levels during 2021, increasing by 52.9% to reach $35.4 billion.

Banking sector profits reached the highest mark since 2018. The y-o-y increase in 2021 was broad-based across the GCC with profits for Kuwaiti banks almost doubled to $2.9 billion. Saudi and UAE-listed banks also reported healthy profit growth of 59.5% and 67.2% during the year. Higher profits also pushed the aggregate return on equity for the sector to a 7-quarter high level of 10.4% at the end of 2021 as compared to