Doha Bank Plans to Hold Off Paying Dividends For the Near Term

(Bloomberg) -- Doha Bank QPSC will hold off paying dividends for the near term and focus on consolidating its capital after the Qatari lender posted a fourth-quarter loss.

“We have reasons to believe we’ll continue to perform well and start paying dividend as we deem fit,” Raghavan Seetharaman said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday.

Doha Bank last week said it was reducing the “2019 dividend to zero to enhance capital and reserves.”

The bank’s quarterly loss was “solely attributable” to a surge in provisions and impairments to the highest level in the bank’s operating history.

Doha Bank Being ‘Conservative’ on Dividends as Growth Flatlines

The bank has skipped a planned rights issue, but plans to raise additional tier 1 or tier 2 capital this year, Seetharaman said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Archana Narayanan in Dubai at anarayanan16@bloomberg.net;Manus Cranny in London at mcranny@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Shaji Mathew

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