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fazeupmag-blog · 6 years ago

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Arm Cortex-A77 – the whole lot you might want to know

Together with its new Mali-G77 graphics processor and Mali-D77 show processor, Arm has unveiled its newest high-performance CPU design- the Cortex-A77. As with final 12 months’s Cortex-A76, the Cortex-A77 is designed for premium tier functions demanding Arm’s signature low-power consumption. The whole lot from smartphones by way of to laptops and fairly probably past.

With the Cortex-A77, Arm has focused the utmost directions per cycle/clock (IPC) efficiency improve it might handle over the Cortex-A76. Clock frequencies, energy consumption, and space, are all designed to stay roughly in the identical ballpark, however the brand new core can crunch by way of extra instruction directly. To do that, Arm has designed an excellent wider core than final 12 months and has made a lot of enhancements to maintain the CPU core fed with issues to do. However earlier than we get to that, let’s dive into the high-level overview and efficiency numbers.

Hitting efficiency targets

Again in August 2018, Arm uncharacteristically shared a CPU roadmap by way of to 2020. From 2016’s Cortex-A73 by way of to 2020’s “Hercules” design, the corporate is promising a 2.5x improve in compute efficiency. A good chunk of this enormous projection was achieved with the key microarchitecture shift with the Cortex-A76, larger fashionable clock speeds, and the transfer from 16 to 10 and now 7nm manufacturing with 5nm to observe. About 1.8x of the roadmap’s positive aspects have been already achieved by final 12 months, and the Cortex-A77 offers an roughly 20 % additional IPC enhance. This places us nicely on the best way to Arm’s 2.5x goal, though cell gadgets with restricted energy and thermal budgets aren’t anticipating to see all of those positive aspects.

For comparability, final 12 months’s Cortex-A76 offered round a 30-35 % enhance over the Cortex-A75. This 12 months we’re taking a look at a extra muted, but nonetheless important, 20 % IPC achieve between the A77 and A76. That is excellent news as a result of it means extra efficiency whereas sticking to related thermal and energy constraints as earlier than. The trade-off is that the A77 is about 17 % bigger than the A76, so will price a bit extra by way of silicon space. If you would like a comparability with the desktop leaders, AMD managed a 15 % IPC enhance between Zen2 and Zen+, whereas Intel’s IPC has remained nearly static for years. After all we’re speaking completely different market segments right here, however this demonstrates how Arm’s CPU design staff has made spectacular positive aspects in current generations.

A 20% efficiency enhance is on provide for next-gen Cortex-A77 primarily based SoCs

The takeaway right here is that the A76 marked a significant microarchitectural shift with enormous efficiency positive aspects, whereas we’re again to optimization degree enhancements with the A77. With that out of the best way, let’s dive into what’s new within the Arm Cortex-A77.

Cortex-A77 builds on the A76 microarchitecture

The important thing to understanding the distinction between the Cortex-A77 and A76 is to understand what is supposed by a “wider” core design. Primarily, we’re speaking the flexibility to execute extra directions for every clock cycle, which will increase the core’s throughput. There are two essential elements to getting this proper – rising the variety of execution items to do the processing and guaranteeing that these items are stored nicely fed with information. Let’s begin with the latter half and focus within the dispatch, cache, and department predictor elements of the SoC.

The Cortex-A77 sees a 50-percent enhance to dispatch width, as much as six directions per cycle from 4 with the A76. Which means extra directions heading to the execution core for every clock cycle for higher efficiency potential. The out-of-order execution window can also be bigger in consequence, rising to 160 entries to show extra parallelism. There’s a well-recognized 64Okay instruction-cache, whereas the Department Goal Buffer (BTB), which holds addresses for the department predictor, is 33 % bigger than earlier than to deal with the expansion in parallel directions. Nothing uncommon right here, it’s primarily a wider model of final 12 months’s design.

The extra intriguing front-end addition is the all-new 1.5K MOP cache, which shops macro-Ops (MOPs) which might be fed again in from the decode unit. Arm’s CPU structure decodes directions from a consumer’s utility into smaller macro-operations after which down additional into micro-ops that the execution core understands. You possibly can see this on the diagram above within the decode part. The MOP cache is used to scale back the fee penalty of missed branches and flushes, as you retain maintain of the macro-ops slightly than decoding them once more, and will increase the core’s total throughput. Fetches from the MOP slightly than i-cache bypass the decode stage, saving one cycle. Arm states that the MOP cache can hit an 85 % or extra hit fee throughout a spread of workloads, making it a really helpful addition to the usual i-cache.

Shifting all the way down to the execution core a part of the CPU, notice the addition of a fourth ALU and second Department unit. This fourth ALU boosts the processor’s normal quantity crunching bandwidth by 50 %. This extra ALU is able to primary one-cycle directions (resembling ADD and SUB) plus two-cycle integer operations such a multiplication. Two of the opposite ALUs can solely deal with primary one-cycle directions, whereas the ultimate unit is charged with extra superior arithmetic operations like division, multiply-accumulate, and so on. The second department unit contained in the execution core doubles the variety of simultaneous department jumps the core can deal with, which is helpful in situations the place two out of the six dispatched directions are department jumps. This sounds slightly unusual, however inner testing at Arm revealed efficiency advantages from adopting this second unit.

The Cortex-A77 affords improved parallelism and a brand new tackle pre-fetch caches

Different tweaks to the CPU core embody the addition of a second AES encryption pipeline. The information-store pipelines now function devoted concern ports to double the reminiscence concern bandwidth. These ports have been beforehand shared with the ALUs, which might generally grow to be a bottleneck. There’s additionally a next-generation information perfecter to enhance energy effectivity whereas additionally rising the bandwidth to system DRAM.

A part of this method within the Cortex-A77 additionally options an all-new “system-aware” prefetch system. This improves reminiscence efficiency primarily based on the wide selection of CPU core counts, cache capacities and latencies, and reminiscence sub-system configurations inside closing gadgets. The devoted hardware to talks to the Dynamic Scheduling Unit (DSU) as a part of a DynamIQ CPU cluster, which screens the utilization of the shared L3 cache. The core options Dynamic distance and aggressiveness ranges to scale back cache utilization in conditions the place L3 bandwidth is restricted by different CPU cores. Greater efficiency cores just like the Cortex-A77 usually tend to saturate DSU entry to reminiscence, whereas decrease energy cores just like the A55 are unlikely to.

Becoming all of it collectively

There are many small modifications to the Cortex-A77 that add as much as some substantial variations to its predecessor. In a nutshell, the A77s new MOP cache mixed with a wider and longer instruction window helps to maintain the beefed-up ALU, Department, and reminiscence items busy with issues to do. The powerhouse Cortex-A76 design has been expanded to enhance its throughput even additional with the A77, with out counting on larger clock speeds.

The most important efficiency boosts to the Cortex-A77 arrive within the type of an integer and floating level math. That is confirmed by Arm’s inner benchmarks, which showcase a 20 to 35 % efficiency enhance in SPEC integer and floating level benchmarks respectively. Reminiscence bandwidth enhancements sit someplace between 15 and 20 %, once more highlighting that the largest positive aspects come within the type of quantity crunching. Total, these enhancements give the A77 a median 20 % uplift over the earlier technology. We may see some additional, extra marginal positive aspects because of extra superior 7nm manufacturing processes later this 12 months or in early 2020.

When it comes to smartphones, Cortex-A77 powered SoCs are destined for high-performance, flagship merchandise. Arm absolutely expects to see powerhouse design make the most of 4+Four bit.LITTLE core preparations. Given the elevated throughput and slight bump to space measurement of the A77, we are going to probably see SoC designers proceed down the 1+3+Four or 2+2+Four pattern. With one or two highly effective huge cores with bigger caches and better clocks, backed up by 2 or Three A77 cores with smaller cache sizes and decrease clocks to save lots of on energy and space. Finally the Cortex-A77 spells good issues for smartphone chips and the rising marketplace for always-connected Arm-based laptops. Hold a watch out for silicon bulletins later this 12 months.

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businessliveme · 6 years ago

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Oman’s 20 largest companies post 44 per cent profit growth

The total revenues of Oman’s 20 largest companies for 2018 went up 38.24 per cent to RO7,202mn, an increase of RO1,992mn from 2017. The profits increased by 43.53 per cent to RO754mn from RO525mn in 2017, according to Oman Economic Review’s annual survey of the companies listed on Muscat Securities Market.

The World Bank 2019 Global Economic Prospects report titled ‘Darkening Skies’, highlights how precarious the current economic juncture is. In a nutshell, growth has weakened, trade tensions remain high, several developing economies have experienced financial stress, and risks to the outlook have increased. “At the beginning of 2018, the global economy was firing on all cylinders, but it lost speed during the year and the ride could get even bumpier in the year ahead”, said World Bank CEO, Kristalina Georgieva. “As economic and financial headwinds intensify for emerging and developing countries, the world’s progress in reducing extreme poverty could be jeopardised. To keep the momentum, countries need to invest in people, foster inclusive growth, and build resilient societies.”

Moderating activity and heightened risks are clouding global economic prospects. International trade and investment have softened, trade tensions remain elevated, and some large emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) have experienced substantial financial market pressures. Against this less favourable backdrop, EMDE growth has lost momentum, with a weaker-than expected recovery in commodity exporters accompanied by a deceleration in commodity importers.

Economic activity in advanced economies has been diverging of late. Growth in the United States has remained solid, bolstered by fiscal stimulus. In contrast, activity in the Euro area has been somewhat weaker than previously expected, owing to slowing net exports. While growth in advanced economies is estimated to have slightly decelerated to 2.2 percent in 2018, it is still above potential and in line with previous forecasts. EMDE growth edged down to an estimated 4.2 per cent in 2018—0.3 percentage point slower than previously projected—as a number of countries with elevated current account deficits experienced substantial financial market pressures and appreciable slowdowns in activity.

Global growth is projected to moderate from a downwardly revised 3 per cent in 2018 to 2.9 per cent in 2019 and 2.8 per cent in 2020-21, as economic slack dissipates, monetary policy accommodation in advanced economies is removed, and global trade gradually slows.

Middle East regional growth is projected to rise to 1.9 per cent in 2019. Despite slower global trade growth and tighter external financing conditions, domestic factors, particularly policy reforms, are anticipated to bolster growth in the region. Growth among oil exporters is expected to pick up slightly this year, as GCC countries as a group accelerate to a 2.6 per cent rate from 2 per cent in 2018. Iran is forecast to contract by 3.6 per cent in 2019 as sanctions bite.

The year 2018 saw an increase in the average oil price for the year. The year closed with an average oil price of $65 per barrel, compared with an average price of $57 in 2016. The year high was $76 with a low of $43 and closed the year at $45. According to KPMG Oman Budget 2019 insights, actual revenues for 2018 are up by 8 per cent as compared to the budgeted figures for 2018. This is on account of increase in realised oil price to $68/bbl as compared to the budgeted price of $ 50/bbl.

Oman’s total crude oil and condensate output in December 2017 reached 30.75 million barrels, recording a daily average production of 992,192 barrels.

Major stock markets across the world suffered their worst calendar year since the financial crisis. In 2018, the Dow fell 5.6 per cent, S&P 6.2 per cent and Nasdaq lost 3.9 per cent. Equity markets outside the US also suffered during the year. The FTSE All-World index, which tracks thousands of stocks across a range of markets, plummeted 12 per cent this year. It’s the index’s worst performance since the global financial crisis, and a sharp reversal from a gain of nearly 25 per cent in 2017. Markets around the world have been battered by the trade conflict between US and China, fears over rising interest rates and geopolitical issues like Brexit. As the year drew to a close, few issues had been resolved.

For the year 2018, the MSM Index decreased by 15.21 per cent. This is compared to a decrease of 11.8 per cent in 2017. The MSM industrial sector was the largest loser declining 26.96 per cent, followed by the Shariah Index declining 17.06 per cent. The services sector declined by 13.36 per cent and the financial sector declined by 8.66 per cent for the year. A total of 4 billion shares got traded during the year amounting to an aggregate turnover of RO739mn, which was down by about 19.43 per cent, compared to 2017. The MSM 30 Index started the year at 5,099 closing the year at 4,324 points, with a negative return of 15.2 per cent for the year. The MSM ranked sixth among the stock markets in the GCC. Qatar was the best performing showing a gain of 20.8 per cent followed by UAE (ADX) in the second position with a return of 11.7 per cent. Saudi followed in third place with a return of 8.3 per cent; Kuwait was fourth with a return of 5.2 per cent; Bahrain was fifth with a return of 0.4 per cent while UAE (DFM) was the last at 24.9 per cent.

During the year 2018, the revenues of Oman’s 20 largest companies showed an increase of RO1,992mn. Total revenues for the OER Top20 companies increased by 38.24 per cent to RO7,202mn. Corporate performance for the year 2017, overall, also increased. The profits for the year 2018 increased this year by 43.53 per cent to RO754mn from RO525mn in 2017. The total market cap of the OER Top20 companies on December 31, 2018 was RO4,871mn, which decreased by about 10 per cent compared to 2017. On March 31, 2019, the market cap of the Top20 decreased further to RO4,420mn. The OER Top20 companies represent 27 per cent of the total market cap of the MSM of RO18,176mn at the end of 2018. The average P/E ratio of the OER Top20 based on the profits of the year 2018 and the share price on March 31, 2019 is 5.86 times earnings.

Who is out and who is in

Raysut Cement has returned to the OER Top20 this year at the expense of Oman Refreshment Company.

The ranking of Oman’s 20 largest companies in order of revenue produces a list, which includes eight companies from the services sector, seven from the financial sector, and five from the industrial sector.

Top five by revenue

Rank

Company

Revenue OMR million Growth % from 2017 1 Omantel 2,186 190.80 2 Oman Oil Marketing 625 22.08 3 Bank Muscat 622 7.17 4 Shell Oman Marketing 529 13.54 5 Al Maha Petroleum Products 488 13.19

Omantel has maintained its position as the number one company in Oman in terms of turnover. Omantel has shown a growth in revenue of 190.80 per cent compared to 2017. The group revenue of RO2,186mn include RO1,642mn from the acquired business of Zain Group. Oman Oil has moved up to the number two position. Bank Muscat has slipped one to the third place. Shell Oman has retained the fourth position and Al Maha the number five position.

Chairman of Omantel, Eng Sultan Hamdoon Al Harthi in his report to the shareholders states that the parent company revenue recorded a growth of 2.6 per cent to RO532.2mn. Parent company costs also increased by 0.9 per cent to RO 445.1mn. Al Harthy explains that the increase in costs is mainly due to growth in revenue related expenses and provision of impairment of receivables. The group achieved a net profit after tax of RO208.8mn, compared to RO99.8mn in 2017. The parent company however achieved a net profit of RO75.5mn during 2018, an increase of 4.3 per cent from 2017.

The board has recommended a dividend of 50 bz per share. Al Harthy adds that the total subscriber base has recorded a decline of 0.2 per cent. The total number of subscribers has reached 3.5 million.

Al Harthy informs that Omantel has expanded its operational footprint through an international acquisition of a strategic stake in the Zain Group. Omantel acquired 21.9 per cent.

Al Harthy states that revenues, especially in mobile, are showing signs of stagnation or even a slight decline, only partially compensated by growth in fixed line services. This market stagnation is caused by reduction in spending power as well as a stagnation in population growth and a change in demographics. These conditions will likely fuel more aggressive competitive behaviour between existing players, further accelerated with the introduction of new players in the market, such as the introduction of a third mobile license and the new license for Oman Broadband as well as the new Access & Interconnect regulation. In a declining core telecom market, this will very likely limit revenue growth potential across all players.

Al Harthy is confident that the execution of the “Omantel 3.0” strategy remains the essential tool for Omantel to defend its position in the market and deal with the changing market dynamics. The focus is on maximising the share of wallet and value for customer, through excelling in customer experience as well as expanding beyond the core services such as ICT solutions for enterprise and government customers. This will assure that they can further grow their position in the market. He adds that the acquisition of a stake in Zain will enable Omantel to diversify its revenue sources and contribute to the creation of an added value to the shareholders of both companies, and will provide opportunities for integration between the two companies as well as to find a strong platform to compete more effectively in the market and overcome the risks of being in a single market.

Top five by profit

Rank

Company

Profit OMR millions Growth % from 2017 1 Omantel 209 109.36 2 Bank Muscat 180 1.59 3 NBO 51 14.95 4 Bank Dhofar 50 5.57 5 OMINVEST 46 34.36

Four banking and financial companies and one telecom company constitute the five most profitable companies of 2018. Omantel has jumped to the number one position as the most profitable company in 2018, followed by Bank Muscat which dropped to the number two spot. NBO has jumped one place to number three position from being number four in 2017. Bank Dhofar has slipped one place to the number four slot. OMINVEST has retained its number five position.

Bank Muscat’s chairman, Khalid bin Mustahail Al Mashani, states in his year-end report to the shareholders that the bank is taking forward the growth momentum with a focus on offering simplified and integrated solutions. The year marked the launch of the bank’s dynamic new vision ‘To serve you better every day’. He adds that the bank is geared towards robust business growth and profitability, improvement in operational efficiency and enhancement in customer experience with objective of improving value for stakeholders and fulfilling social responsibilities.

The bank posted a net profit of RO179.63mn for the period, compared to RO176.82mn reported during the same period in 2017, an increase of 1.6 per cent.

Mashani adds that the basic earnings per share was RO0.061 in 2018 and 2017. The bank’s capital adequacy ratio stood at 19.22 per cent as on December 31, 2018 after appropriation for proposed dividend for the year 2018 against the minimum required level of 13.575 per cent as per Basel III regulations issued by the Central Bank of Oman.

Mashani goes on to say that the board of directors has proposed a dividend of 40 per cent, 35 per cent of paid-up share capital in the form of cash and 5 per cent in the form of bonus shares.

Mashani states that the year 2018 witnessed further strategic progress. The board approved a new organisation structure in line with the bank’s strategic plan and announced the appointment of Sheikh Waleed Hashar as CEO. Abdul Razak Issa, CEO and Ahmed Al Abri COO retired their positions on December 31, 2018 after more than 30 years of illustrious service.

The bank marked a successful closure of a five-year, $500mn bond issuance under its Euro Medium Term Note programme, carrying a coupon of 4.875 per cent which was oversubscribed more than two times.

Following 36 years of successful growth, Mashani is confident that the Sultanate’s flagship financial institution is poised to further consolidate its leading position.

Top five by growth of profit

Rank

Company

Growth % from 2017 1 Galfar 134.03 2 Renaissance 123.54 3 Omantel 109.36 4 HSBC 64.08 5 Oman Cables 55.41

Four of the top five are newcomers to this list. Galfar has shown a growth profit of 134 per cent, thus attaining the number one position in this category. Renaissance has taken the number two slot. Omantel is at number three. HSBC has slipped one to number four. Oman Cables is at the fifth place. Sohar International, which was number one last year, Oman Flour Mills, Oman Refreshment and Bank Muscat were eliminated from the list this year.

Vice chairman of Galfar, Mohiuddin Mohamed Ali in his report to the shareholders stated that the group’s performance during the year 2018 resulted in a positive contribution to the equity and reduction in accumulated losses. The net profit after tax of the parent company has improved by 11.8 per cent as against 8.4 per cent in 2017 to RO5.7mn, as against a loss of RO3.7mn in 2017.

Ali adds that the liquidity issues of the company continued on account of delay in receipt of certified payment from the government-related entities. Unpaid receivables were at RO60mn at the closing of the year.

Ali explains that the board and management continue to explore avenues to strengthen the company’s financial position in a challenging external environment. There are strict measures in place to control the manpower and overhead expenses.

Post the balance sheet date, Ali confirms that the parent company has entered into a preliminary agreement to sell all its investments in India. Wholly owned subsidiaries in Oman have achieved good financial results. Associate company in Kuwait again recorded a profit for 2018. Ali also stated that in addition to hiving off investments in India, the company continues to pursue international business opportunities in selected geography in the MENA region.

Top five highest-capitalised

Rank

Company

Shareholders Equity OMR millions 1 Bank Muscat 1,798 2 Omantel 548 3 Bank Dhofar 543 4 National Bank of Oman 421 5 HSBC Bank Oman 340

Four of the top five companies that have the highest amount of equity employed are banks. All the companies in this category remain the same as last year and in the same positions. Eng Abdul Hafidh Salim Rajab Al-Aujaili, chairman of Bank Dhofar in his report to the shareholders has stated that despite the current challenging economic and financial situation driven by volatile oil prices and rising interest rates, the bank continued to grow its net profit in 2018 achieving 5.57 per cent growth year-on year from RO47.63mn ($123.71mn) as of December 31, 2017 to RO50.28mn ( $30.60mn) as of December 31, 2018. Al-Aujaili adds that the net loans, advances and financing to customers reached RO3.16bn ($8.21bn) at December 2018, compared to RO3.25bn ($8.44bn) at the end of 2017. In line with a decline in loans and financing book, customer deposits, including Islamic deposits, also decreased by 4.88 per cent from RO3.07bn ($7.97bn) at the end of 2017 to reach RO2.92bn ($7.58bn) at the end of 2018. Total assets reached RO4.21bn ($10.94bn) in December 2018 as compared to RO4.25bn ($11.04bn) at end of 2017, a marginal decline of 0.94 per cent.

Maisarah Islamic Banking Services, Al-Aujaili states, has achieved a strong growth in profitability of 86.21 per cent net profit before tax of RO5.94mn ($15.43mn) compared to a net profit before tax of RO3.19mn ($8.29mn) in 2017.

Al-Aujaili advises that in continuation of its capital augmentation to strengthen the capital base, the bank has successfully raised capital of RO95mn in the forms of a rights issue of its ordinary shares by RO55mn which forms part of the bank’s Core Equity Tier 1 Capital (CET1); and additional Tier 1 perpetual bond of RO40mn which forms part of Tier 1 Capital. This takes the CET-1 Ratio to a healthy 11.88 per cent and total Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) to 17.33 per cent, compared to the regulatory requirements of 8.875 per cent and 12.875 per cent as at December 31, 2018.

The board of directors Al-Aujaili informs have proposed a cash dividend of 10 per cent (2017: 12 per cent) for the year ended on December 3, 2018 amounting to RO28mn (2017: RO27.09mn) and a bonus share issue of 7 per cent (2017: 8 per cent) amounting to 196,022,990 shares (2017: 180,268,618 shares) of RO 0.100 each subject to regulatory and shareholders’ approvals.

Top five by market capitalisation

Rank

Company

Market Capitalization on 31 March 2019 OMR millions 1 Bank Muscat SAOG 1,185 2 Oman Telecommunications Co. SAOG 459 3 Bank Dhofar SAOG 400 4 Oman Qatari Telecom (OOREDOO) 328 5 National Bank of Oman SAOG 285

Three of the top five companies that have the highest market capitalisation on the MSM are banks. All five companies remain in the same position as last year.

Chairman of Ooredoo Oman, Sayyed Amjad Mohamed Al Busaidi states that the past year has been another show of strength, with Ooredoo continuing to show growth in what was a year of unpredictability. Through perseverance and consolidation of investments of previous years, the company saw another strong financial performance.

Al Busaidi adds that 2017 was a year in which the company focused on their commitment to investing in the digital future of both telecommunications and the country; striving to enrich the digital lives of all of their customers. Ooredoo maintained its commitment to giving customers the ultimate way to ‘enjoy the internet’, with the extension of their superfast fiber coverage. With speeds of up to 1 Gbps and unlimited data, the rollout started with over 1,500 homes being connected in Muscat, followed by rapid expansion across Muscat and beyond.

Perhaps the most significant of the company’s milestones, however, was the rollout of the all-new Ooredoo Oman app. Redefining the way to deal with customers, the app has a constantly expanding range of services, to give customers control at their fingertips. Since its launch in January, the app has seen over 500,000 downloads, all with a high utilisation level of the wide range of services and customer it offers.

Revenues for the year 2017 grew by 1.3 per cent to RO273.6mn, compared with RO270.0mn in 2016. EBITDA for the year stood at RO151.0mn, compared to RO148.3mn for the year 2016. Net profit for 2017 was RO31.0mn, compared with RO46.3mn in 2016. Net profit for 2017 is impacted by increase in royalty fee from 7 per cent to 12 per cent, increase in income tax rate from 12 per cent to 15 per cent as well as higher depreciation cost due to investment in network modernisation. The total number of customers grew by 4.2 per cent, in 2017 from 2,946,660 to 3,071,644.

Top five by returns on equity

Rank

Company

Profit as % of Equity

1 Omantel 38.14 2 OMINVEST 25.33 3 Shell 24.05 4 Renaissance 21.19 5 Oman Flour 20.92

Of the top five companies with the best returns on equity for the year 2018, three are from the services sector, one from financial and two from the industrial sector. Shell maintains its first position from 2017. Renaissance is a new entrant in the number four spot. Omantel has moved up to number one from being five in 2017. Ominvest has moved up one to the number two spot. Shell has slipped to the number three spot from being one in 2017 and Oman Flour has slipped from number four to number five.

Khalid Mohamed Al Zubair, chairman of Ominvest in his report to the shareholders states that during the year, Ominvest delivered strong results both at the group and the parent level. Al Zubair adds that during 2018, Ominvest successfully raised and secured total funding facilities of over RO250mn at attractive terms from leading local and international banks and prominent Omani institutional investors. Ominvest has used most of these funds to allocate capital to their key non-banking subsidiaries in growth sectors (insurance, private equity and real estate) with the highest ROI potential and to achieve the revenue diversification objectives.

Al Zubair states that during the year ended 31 December 2018, total revenues rose by 29 per cent to RO47.72mn and the net profit by 27 per cent to RO34.36mn, over the same period in 2017. The increase in the parent-level net profit was mainly due to increase in the share of P&L of the subsidiaries and interest income. As at December 31, 2018, total assets of the parent company stood at RO541mn compared to RO388mn as at 31 December 2017.

During the year ended 31 December 2018, Al Zubair adds the total group revenues rose by 17 per cent to RO277.53mn and the net profit attributable to Ominvest’s shareholders grew by 47 per cent to RO30.52mn from RO20.83mn, over the same period in 2017. The growth is attributable to strong performance of our major subsidiaries: Oman Arab Bank (OAB), National Life & General Insurance (NLG), Oman Real Estate Investment & Services Corporation (ORIS) and Jabreen Capital.

Al Zubair is confident that the subsidiaries will continue to deliver healthy results in the future.

Top five by earnings per share growth

Rank

Company

Earnings per share growth % 1 Galfar 131.25 2 Renaissance 105.54 3 Ominvest 76.92 4 HSBC 60.00 5 Al Jazeera Steel 42.11

Three of the top five earnings per share growth companies are newcomers on this list. Galfar, a newcomer, comes straight into the number one position; Renaissance moves up to the number two spot from being five last year. Ominvest takes the number three position. HSBC slips two places to number four and Al Jazeera Steel at number five is a new comer to this list.

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, chairman of HSBC in his report to the shareholders states that the bank had encouraging results in 2018. Performance shows a 64.4 per cent increase in net profit for the year ended on December 31, 2018 to RO31.4mn. This compares with RO19.1mn for 2017, the increase being driven primarily by a 14.1 per cent growth in revenues.

Cowper-Coles explains that the net interest income grew by 10.7 per cent to RO60.1mn for the year due to the growth in the average loan balances of the customers as well as the rising yield on financial investments which the company made with itssurplus liquidity. Net fee income stood at RO11.7mn for the year.

Cowper-Cole advises that the board of directors proposes a total cash dividend of RO18.6mn, with a dividend pay-out ratio of 59.3 per cent. This represents a 63.2 per cent increase in the dividend payment, compared with 2017.

Top four by share price growth

Rank

Company

Share price growth %

1 Renaissance 23.91 2 Ooredoo 7.98 3 Galfar 6.67 4 Bank Muscat 4.06

Once again, out of the 20 companies, only four companies showed a share price growth during the year 2018. Renaissance has moved to the number one spot from being number two last year. Ooredoo at number two, Galfar at number three and Bank Musat at number four are all new comers to this list. Oman Flour Mills, Al Jazeera Steel and HSBC which were on this list are out.

Samir J Fancy, chairman of Renaissance in his report to the shareholder states that in 2018 the company returned to profit. For 2019, the two businesses – Topaz and Renaissance– have each secured revenue growth. Political and economic volatility, both global and regional, continues to present challenges. The company is sensitive to risk and alert to opportunity.

The group revenue increased to RO244mn compared to RO195mn in 2017. EBITDA in 2018 was RO94mn against RO60mn in 2017. The net profit for the year after tax and minority interest was RO6.8mn against a loss of RO44.5mn in 2017.

Fancy states that Topaz is a global powerhouse in marine logistics, with the vision of being the champion provider of marine and logistics solutions to the global offshore industry. Whilst market conditions are improving, continued volatility and uncertainty about the oil price may temper the speed of recovery.

Renaissance is a market leading services solutions business in Oman, Fancy adds, which is delivering growth by combining the cost advantage of the company’s scale with a strategy to diversify its services, sectors and geography. The outsourcing culture is improving, and the addressable market is growing.

Fancy states that expectations for 2019 are very positive, with growth and margin improvement building every quarter. The pipeline of new opportunity is encouraging and the focus is on growth, whist managing efficiencies and cash gives the company the confidence. Dealing with the long-term capital structure for Topaz is a priority.

Top five by dividend yields

Rank

Company

Dividend Yield % 1 NBO 8.79 2 Bank Muscat 8.54 3 Ooredoo 7.92 4 HSBC 7.82 5 Al Maha Petroleum 7.51

NBO was the best dividend yielding company in 2018 moving up from the number four place. Bank Muscat has moved up a place to number two. Ooreedoo has dropped one place to the number three position. HSBC and Al Maha have taken the fourth and fifth place. Al Jazeera, which was number one in 2017, has dropped out.

Chairperson of NBO, Sayyida Rawan Ahmed Al Said, in her report to the shareholders states that the banking sector, has continued to face a challenging market. The liquidity position has not eased to the desired extent and asset quality pressures persist, especially in the real estate sector. Credit growth in Oman in the first 10 months has been 5.7 per cent, while deposits growth was 4.4 per cent. Against this backdrop, NBO reported 15 per cent growth in net profits compared to 2017, primarily as a result of lower provisioning from the UAE. As reported in prior commentaries, Al Said adds the bank has proactively exited most of its non-strategic UAE customers over the past 18 months, as they seek to concentrate on relationships emanating from Oman. The decline in UAE net loans in the last six quarters was RO93mn, leading to a significant decline in total operating income during 2018.

Al Said states that their short-to-medium term focus remains on growing their margins, with a modest growth in loan book size and continued fee income diversification. The latter in particular has gained momentum during 2018, while ongoing cost management initiatives have kept cost growth to a minimum. Cost management will continue to be a relentless focus in 2019, although there is ample investment approved for digitisation and transformation initiatives.

As they look forward to 2019, Al Said confirms that they are committed to leading the market by consistently demonstrating their customer-first approach, superior service, innovative technology and diverse range of products and services.

The post Oman’s 20 largest companies post 44 per cent profit growth appeared first on Businessliveme.com.

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aobindia1-blog · 7 years ago

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WOKKITpro Questionnaire

1. Tell us about the inception story of the firm. What motivated you towards the establishment of this firm? What were the challenges that you saw in the industry that you wanted to target with WOKKITpro?

We have been associated with the real estate industry for the past 4 decades and considering the complexity of any real estate transaction and the various parameters involved, doing real estate business in India still remains a challenge.

I personally feel that the Real Estate segment in India has a long way to go in terms of embracing technology to facilitate ease of doing business. The industry is not very organized when compared to the global scenario and all critical information to do business is still very scattered.

Real Estate has always been about 2 things - LOCATION & INFORMATION - and the latter i.e. INFORMATION is still not available on a single platform.

This is when the idea of WOKKITpro was born!

WOKKITpro, today, is the only DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY POWERED BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOL for Real Estate industry in India.

We have launched this solution in Tamil Nadu and have plans to expand nationwide soon.

WOKKITpro is a comprehensive repository of updated real estate specific information which helps our customer take accurate and informed business decisions.

WOKKITpro helps our users analyze and interpret information specific to their business needs and catalyzes growth.

2. What were the challenges that you faced during the early days of inception of the firm? Also, how did you overcome those challenges to evolve as a recognized name in this industry?

Recruiting the right resources with the required skill sets and training them from the real estate business perspective was a challenge.

Also translating all the real estate industry information to the minutest of the detail from business perspective onto the software was also a challenge.

Well, these are evolving processes and we are leaving no stone unturned to facilitate enhanced user experience.

3. What are the challenges that your clients usually come up to you with? What are the various measures taken by WOKKITpro to meet their requirements?

All our prospective clients in the market have confessed that collating all critical real estate specific information, whether it is Classifieds or Advertisements, from so many sources, both from newspapers and online news portals, useful for their business, has been a very laborious task; and also, not without human errors.

WOKKITpro, to these customers, has come as a boon, as it just does that with fractional errors.

Features like PUBLIC NOTICE, GAZETTE & JUDGEMENTS give them all the legal information and avoid future litigations. These are unique to WOKKITpro and made available over a click of a button.

Our clients are really excited and they want us to go PAN India.

4. Elaborate on the major services offered by WOKKITpro, emphasizing your services? Also, how does WOKKITpro’s solutions work and what are the processes involved in it?

WOKKITpro aggregates all real estate industry information which helps our clients with leads and also to take informed decisions.

If you open our WOKKITpro app today, you will find close to 2 million real estate specific data useful for our client’s business. Therefore, it will be no exaggeration to state that our WOKKITpro app is an information aggregator specific to your business needs.

The app also connects prospective buyers, sellers, traders, real estate suppliers and service providers on a single platform.

WOKKITpro is completely data driven and the process involves culling out millions of real estate specific data from hundreds of newspaper editions, news portals et al and uploading the same on our WOKKITpro application. This task is herculean but our team of close to 100 qualified members in our production team, working in 2 shifts, make it happen!

5. The modern business demands high quality services at lesser cost to compete in price driven markets. What are the benefits that WOKKITpro’s services assure to its clients? How does your company streamline your clients’ business through these services?

Yes! We deliver quality without compromise. However, when we interviewed a few industry stalwarts after taking them through the application before we launched our solution in Jan 2018, they had suggested a price which was nearly 10 times our existing price band. We, very consciously, decided to keep the price much lower as we wanted our customers to enjoy all the benefits of WOKKITpro at a reasonable cost which works out to approximately Rs. 20 a day without taxes. So, today, we are very competitive on price with no compromise on quality.

In terms of benefits, we provide all our users very comprehensive information on news, classifieds, advertisements, tenders, public notice, area info, gazettes, judgments, get quotes, manage locations & listings.

All the above data helps our clients in streamlining their business.

6. Today, organizations are facing unprecedented challenges like economic uncertainty, market complexity, hyper-competition, changing consumer expectations and regulatory pressures. Both private and public organizations are looking for next-generation services. What are the new frameworks and techniques that WOKKITpro follows to provide maximum optimization and what are the new arenas in technology that your company wishes to focus into?

In all the market conditions and market dynamics mentioned above, clients with first-hand information on real estate & properties always stand to win.

We will be soon moving into artificial intelligence to collate data. This will be our next move in terms of technology.

7. The global market for these services is highly competitive in nature. Hence companies are coming up with niche strategies in this domain to stay ahead. What makes your company different from its competitors in the market? Where does the core competency of WOKKITpro lie?

WOKKITpro, as a solution, is a niche by itself, in India. The core competency of WOKKITpro lies in its business specific data which forms its nucleus.

As of today, there is no such B2B application like WOKKITpro that offers a similar solution.

8. How has the company’s growth been since its inception? Mention a few milestones achieved by WOKKITpro. Also, according to you, what are the major factors that have contributed towards the growth of this firm?

The growth has been slow and steady but increasing every day as more and more customers are subscribing to WOKKITpro.

The niche solution that we provide, I think, will catapult our growth in the years to come.

9. Please tell us about WOKKITpro’s work culture and employee programme. How do you harbor innovation among your employees?

Well, I cannot tell you as to how many brain storming sessions that I have had with all team members of our organization before we freeze on a particular feature. Yes, we encourage our team to regularly throw up ideas anytime and my doors are always open to receive them. We have a very pro-employee approach in the way we deal with our team members and this has helped us to increase productivity. We have always believed in cross fertilizing innovative impulses, wherever they come from, from both within and outside of our organization.

In a nutshell, we encourage proactive initiatives, willingness to learn and creative thinking. We also reward such initiatives as a token of appreciation and recognition.

10. How has the company charted out its map for future and what developments can we expect from WOKKITpro in the years to come?

WOKKITpro will become synonymous with Real estate nationwide and we have plans to foray into other verticals to facilitate ease of doing business.

#real estate broker #real estate #Broker #rental property #property dealer

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