Qatar First Bank (QFB) has posted net profits of QR113.2m ($31.1m) for the full year 2013, a 24 per cent increase on the previous year.

The sharia-compliant bank, which is active in private equity investments, invested a total of QR244m ($67m) during 2013.

The bank’s growth was attributed to Qatar’s strong economy, which was supported by rising oil prices and large infrastructure spending, according to QFB’s chairman Abdulla Bin Fahad Bin Ghorab Al-Marri.

The bank also increased its authorised capital by 25 per cent to QR2.5bn during 2013.  

These additional funds were partly raised to supporting the development of its commercial banking business.

QFB also confirmed that it is still preparing for a listing on the Qatar Exchange.

Plans for the listing have been in the pipeline since 2012, but, as yet, no definite date has been set.

QFB was set up in March 2009 and since then has invested a total of QR2.1bn ($579m) in transactions across a variety of sectors such as energy, financial services, industrials, real estate and healthcare across the Middle East, Turkey and the UK.