Mubasher: The net profit of National Investments Company (NIC) surged by 45.59% on an annual basis in 2019 to reach KWD 10.73 million ($34.76 million), compared with KWD 7.37 million ($23.87 million) in 2018.

The growth in the annual earnings was largely helped by higher management, incentive, brokerage, and advisory fee income and a rise in NIC’s share of results from associates, according to a bourse disclosure on Wednesday.  

Moreover, the company reported an increase in realised and unrealized gains from financial assets at the fair value (FV) through profit or loss during the fiscal year (FY) ended on 31 December 2019.

In the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2019, NIC turned to a profit of KWD 1.48 million, against a loss of KWD 1.05 million in Q4-18.

During its latest meeting, the board of directors recommended a cash dividends distribution of nine fils per share or 9% of the share’s nominal value for 2019.

It is worth noting that in the first nine months of 2019, the investment firm’s profit grew by 10% to KWD 9.25 million from KWD 8.41 million a year earlier.