Qatar’s CBQ, Doha Bank May Raise New Capital In 2015

Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ) and Doha Bank may need to increase their capital next year by $412 million each to abide by expected central bank regulations, U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley said in a report.

While Qatari banks have formally adopted Basel 3 international regulations as of early this year, the investment bank expects Qatar’s central bank to impose higher capital requirements that could go up to 16 per cent of risk-weighted assets in 2019.

Qatari banks will choose to raise capital, rather than curtail growth or cut dividends to zero, and might also look at further overseas expansions to beat limited growth prospects in a country of 1.7 million people, the report said.

“Investors have yet to appreciate the full implications of Qatar’s move to Basel 3,” said Morgan Stanley in an emailed report dated May 19.

“We think the Qatar Central Bank will require 14 per cent capital from FY15. We don’t think cutting growth is an option for the banks. So, we expect Qatar National Bank and Doha Bank to pare divis, while Commercial Bank of Qatar and Doha Bank may also opt to raise capital,” it said.

Qatar’s central bank, which set the minimum Basel 3 capital level for local banks at 12.5 per cent versus 10 per cent under Basel 2, may require new capital buffers as early as next year, effectively raising the minimum ratio to 14 per cent by the fourth quarter of 2015 and 16 per cent by early 2019, the report said.

While Qatar National Bank’s (QNB) organic capital generation will be sufficient to cover capital requirements, Morgan Stanley expects that both CBQ and Doha Bank will need to raise QAR1.5 billion ($412 million) each in Tier 1 capital to keep pace with growth.

CBQ and Doha Bank could not immediately be reached for comment.

Morgan Stanley upgraded CBQ to “overweight” with a price target of QAR80. The bank’s shares are flat at QAR67 on Wednesday.

Both QNB and Doha Bank were both downgraded to “even,” with targets of QAR204 and QAR67 respectively. QNB is trading down 0.3 per cent at QAR184.50 while Doha Bank is up 1.1 per cent at QAR63.70.