GCC listed companies' quarterly net profits see sharp fall in Q4

15/04/2026 02:01 AST

Quarterly net profits reported by companies listed on GCC exchanges witnessed a sharp sequential decline and reached the lowest level in 12 quarters during Q4-2025, said a Kamco research report.

Aggregate profits during the quarter declined by 24.7% q-o-q or $16.2 billion to reach $49.4 billion after a broad-based decline in profits across most exchanges more than offset a growth in profits reported by companies listed on Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

In terms of y-o-y, aggregate profits witnessed a decline of 13.2% or $7.5 billion after healthy growth in profits for most exchanges was partially offset by a decline in aggregate profits for companies listed on the Saudi and Kuwait exchanges.

At the country level, the y-o-y profit growth was highest for Abu Dhabi and Dubai, registering a y-o-y increase of 36.0% and 17.9% during Q4-2025, respectively. Saudi-listed companies posted a y-o-y profit decline of 34.6% or $12.1 billion to reach $22.8 billion while companies listed on Boursa Kuwait posted a profit decline of 25.1% or $0.5 billion to reach $1.5 billion during Q4-2025.

In terms of sector performance, the biggest y-o-y decline was reported by companies in the Materials sector that reported aggregate losses of $4.8 billion in Q4-2025 as against profits of $478.2 million in Q4-2024 and $1.9 billion in Q3-2025. The Energy sector was next with a y-o-y profit drop of $4.5 billion or 17.3% to reach $21.3 billion.

Telecom and F&B sectors also reported y-o-y profit decline during Q4-2025 mainly led by one-off gains in the previous year that resulted in a sharp decline in y-o-y profits.

On the other hand, the Utilities sector reported profits of $0.7 billion as against a net loss of $1.3 billion in Q4-2024. The improvement reflected smaller net loss reported by Saudi Electricity at $238.4 million in Q4-2025 as against a net loss of $2 billion in Q4-2025.

Banks and Real Estate also registered healthy profit growth during Q4-2024 that helped to partially offset the overall decline. GCC banks registered a y-o-y profit growth of 9.6% to USD 15.9 Bn while the Real Estate sector registered a profit growth by around a third to reach $4.7 billion, the Kamco report said.

The aggregate revenues for the GCC corporates reached a new record high during Q4-2025, although the y-o-y growth was marginal at 3.6% to reach $344.8 billion. The growth was broad-based as seen from the growth in most sectors in the GCC while a decline in revenues for the Materials and Energy sectors by 25.4% and 1.9% partially offset the overall growth. The decline in revenues for Saudi Aramco also impacted the overall trend as it registered a revenue decline of 2.7%. Excluding Saudi Aramco, overall revenues for Saudi-listed companies increased by 1.2% while the increase at the GCC level was a healthy 6.9%.

For the full year 2025, revenues increased by 2.3% to $1.3 trillion. Once again, the decline in revenues of Saudi Aramco by 7.2% affected the overall growth in the GCC. Excluding Aramco, revenue growth for GCC corporates came in at 7.8%.

In terms of net profits for the full year, GCC-listed companies declined for the third straight year to reach USD 235.6 Bn in 2025, registering a decline of $5.9 billion or 2.4% as compared to $241.5 billion in 2024. The decline reflected mixed trend at the country level with aggregates for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait showing a decline that more than offset the growth in profits for the rest of the GCC country aggregates.

Net profits reported by listed banks in the GCC declined by 9.3% from a record high level in Q3-2025 to a four-quarter low level of $15.9 billion during Q4-2025. The decline, which was seen in almost all the countries in the GCC barring Oman, mainly reflected higher impairments that more than offset the topline growth. An increase in operating expenses for the second consecutive quarter also affected bottom-line performance. The decline came despite a healthy growth in revenues for the sector that reached a new record high of $37.4 billion and was mainly led by a q-o-q fall in non-interest income as well as higher impairments during the quarter.

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