Al Ansari to Fully Acquire BFC Group in Q1-2025

Al Ansari Financial Services (AAFS), a leading integrated financial services group in the UAE, on Thursday said that its acquisition of BFC Group Holdings will be completed in the first quarter of next year.

With this acquisition, AAFS is poised to become the leading provider of foreign exchange and remittance services across the Gulf region with a total of more than 410 branches across the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and India.

AAFA also said that the integration of the company’s operations in Kuwait with Oman Exchange was completed and Al Ansari Exchange in Kuwait will be acquired by end of this year, with synergies to be realised in Q1 of 2025.

Disclosing this along with its financial results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2024 in a filing with Dubai Financial Market (DFM) this morning, the company said that its operating income grew 1% y-o-y to $78.41 million on a reported basis with adjusted operating income, after excluding one-off Iraq income in Q3 of 2023, reporting an increase of 11%.

The EBITDA dropped 7% y-o-y to $35.67 million on a reported basis and grew 14% on an adjusted basis. The net profit after tax declined 17% y-o-y to $28.04 million on a reported basis and increased 4% y-o-y on an adjusted basis

For the first nine months, the company’s operating income declined 1% y-o-y to $232.78 million on a reported basis with adjusted operating income reporting an increase of 4%. EBITDA dropped 11% y-o-y to $105.654 million on a reported basis while adjusted EBITDA dropped by only 2%.

The company’s net profit after tax declined 20% y-o-y to $83.86 million on a reported basis and dropped 10% y-o-y on an adjusted basis while the total transactions increased by 2% y-o-y to 37.3 million.

Challenges Aplenty                          

The company said that challenges posed by the parallel market in key remittance corridors have begun to ease in recent quarters. However, the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the region continued to impact remittance income.

Remittance operating income saw a slight 2% reduction y-o-y on a reported basis, while adjusted Remittance Operating Income witnessed a 7% increase reaching $139.67 million, AAFS said.

AAFS Group CEO Rashed A Al Ansari said that the past nine months have posed significant challenges for the industry, with economic and geopolitical pressures, heightened competition, and introduction of corporate tax, coupled with increased operational and manpower costs, impacting the company’s performance.

He said that despite these adversities, our results are showing positive progress on all fronts. We are very proud of the achievements of the team in navigating these external and internal industry challenges successfully.

The company has been vigilant in monitoring the evolving competitive landscape, particularly the emergence of fintech companies in the market. While AAFS welcomes competition and believe it fosters innovation, it is important to ensure fair and sustainable practices, he noted.

“This is why we are actively working with the Foreign Exchange and Remittance Group (FERG) and regulatory authorities to address industry-wide challenges and mitigate their impact on our business and the broader industry. the broader industry, and the initial response we have received are highly encouraging and turning fruitful,” he added.