Earnings call. This meeting is being recorded. During the earnings call, you can start posting your questions on slido.com. You have the link to Slido in your conference call invitations, #askqnb. We will move on to the Q&A session. With no further delays, I'd like to hand over the call now to Mr. Mark Abrahams. Please go ahead, Mark. Thank you. Thank you very much, Aybek and the HSBC team, for hosting our Q3 earnings webcast today. Before we begin, we would like to highlight that this webcast is for investors and analysts only. Any media should please disconnect now. I will begin by giving an update on recent economic trends, followed by a brief overview of the macroeconomic environment in Qatar. I will cover QNB's financial results for the quarter end 30th of September 2021. Finally open up the floor to Q&A. Qatar has taken all necessary precautionary measures to protect its population and economy from COVID-19. Under the vaccination program, over 82% of the population is now fully vaccinated, and booster shots are being offered in a phased manner. The rapid recovery from the impact of the pandemic and the ramp-up of preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup are driving a rapid expansion of Qatar's non-energy private sector. The Qatar Financial Centre's Purchasing Managers' Index has been indicating expansion since July 2020 and has accelerated in recent months, rising to 60.6 in September of this year, signaling sustained improvement in business conditions. In the medium term, tailwinds from investment in increasing hydrocarbon production will drive economic growth, with six new LNG trains planned that will increase Qatar's LNG production by 64% to 126 million tons per annum as part of the North Field expansion. Importantly, this expansion will make innovative use of both carbon capture and renewable energy to minimize carbon emissions and also enhance sustainability. Positive spillovers from increased hydrocarbon production will combine with diversification efforts and structural reforms to boost economic activity and spending in the manufacturing and services sectors. Qatar is laying the foundation for continued GDP growth over the medium to long term through investment, diversification, and stronger private sector growth. I will now move on to QNB's quarterly financial results for the nine-month period ending 30th of September 2021. QNB net profit was QAR 10.3 billion, or $2.82 billion, up 8% compared to the same period last year. QNB Group has continued hard to work on its operational rationalization exercise, which has resulted in reducing the cost-to-income ratio from 24.2% last year to a current level of 22.5%. Operating income was QAR 20.7 billion, or $5.7 billion, demonstrating once again QNB Group's success in maintaining growth across the range of revenue sources, even in these challenging conditions. Total assets are currently standing at QAR 1.084 trillion, or $297.7 billion, up by 10% from September 2020. This was driven by a growth of 7% in loans and advances to reach QAR 766.2 billion, or $210.5 billion. QNB Group remains successful in attracting deposits, which resulted in an increase in customer funding by 10% from September 2020 to reach QAR 783.8 billion, or $215.3 billion. This helped the group's loan-to-deposit ratio remain stable at 97.8%. The group was also able to attract high-quality wholesale funding. During 2021, QNB Group tapped its global debt markets for debt security issuance under its EMTN program, including a $1 billion five-year bond issued in January of this year, and also a debut bond launch on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for $600 million for three years, successfully placed in June 2021. Despite several challenges and headwinds from the global pandemic, QNB Group was able to maintain the ratio of non-performing loans to gross loans at 2.3%, a level considered to be one of the lowest among financial institutions in the Middle East and Africa region, reflecting the high quality of the group's loan book and the effective management of credit risk in these conditions. Additionally, the coverage ratio on Stage 3 loans is at 112%. Total equity increased to QAR 101.3 billion, up by 8% from September 2020. The bank's capital adequacy ratio, at 18.6%, is comfortably higher than both QCB and Basel III requirements. The group is very well capitalized and comfortably exceeds other regulatory liquidity and leverage ratios. Thank you very much. We will now turn to Q&A. Thank you, Mark. To remind everyone, to ask a question, please use the Slido platform #AskQNB. When you ask a question, please mention your name, your company name, so that we'll make sure we announce it to the management team. We have the first question coming from Rahul Bajaj, Citi. Any comment on guidance for 2021 or early thoughts on 2022 guidance? Guidelines for 2021 still very close to what we have announced in June. The only change would be on profitability. Balance sheet, we still expect it to be 7%-9% growth. Profit or loss, one notch higher than what we anticipated in June. We expect it now to be 8%-10%, which is a big jump from what we originally talked about in January, which was 6%-8%. This clearly reflects that the momentum in terms of profitability is going in the right direction. 2022, I will give rough numbers for now because still too early and still building the budget, but I believe that balance sheet will be between 6%-8% and the same for the profit loss. Let's start with 6%-8%, and hopefully we will manage the update in the upcoming phone call, especially in December. Uh, there is a- That is for the whole. Apologies. There is a follow-up question from Rahul Bajaj. QNB historically sees a jump in the cost of risk during the fourth quarter. Is it fair to assume a similar jump this year? There will be an increase in the fourth quarter provisions. Overall cost of risk for the year, we expect it to be between 78 to the 82 basis points, which is very close to what we have mentioned earlier. Thank you, Ramzi. Once again, to ask a question, please use the Slido platform, which is in the corporate invitation form. When you ask a question, please mention your name and company name. In the meantime, Ramzi, I'd like to go ahead and ask a question from my side. We've seen a pretty dramatic increase in gas prices since the start of the year. Any market you look at or any export destination you take, what's your read across for QNB's business? Does it ease liquidity? Does it also mean stronger government spending or stronger loan growth? What would be your take on this? Definitely this will decrease any shortage in the budget, and it will be very positive data to the state in terms of increasing liquidity in the system. It doesn't need to be very positive for QNB in particular, because historically, when the state is liquid, that means they start repaying some of their loans. If this continues, I will not be surprised that the government will start to repay some of the loans in QNB. Definitely, it will be positive to the liquidity in the system. In terms of continuing investing in the country, I think they have been investing heavily, and we saw this in the growth in loans to the public sector in the first nine months of the year. Definitely, with the increased liquidity, their dependence on banks to finance some of these projects will become less and less. At the same time, many of the projects that they have been investing heavily on, they are very close to completion because they want to complete most of these projects before 2022. Technically, many of these projects will be finished, and the amount of investment that needs to be done will be less. I don't anticipate a major increase in public sector spending that comes from banks. I mean, that comes from banks during the fourth quarter or 2022. Anyway, we need to wait and see how oil prices, whether it will continue at that level or not. Thank you, Ramzi. We have a question from Chiradeep Ghosh, SICO Bahrain, and the question is about risk-weighted assets, which are at the highest level ever. Given that the loan portfolio continues to rise, where do you see risk-weighted assets going? It depends on different factor, where the growth is going to come. We just mentioned that we don't see Major increase in loans to the public sector, which means that QNB, similar to what we have done 7 or 8 years ago, we will go and increase our market share in the private sector, which we have done before. At the same time, we expect growth in private sector to be higher in the future years. Number 1, 2022 is important for the World Cup. Beyond that, I think the government now will go back to their strategy, which was 4 or 5 years ago, whereby more dependent on the private sector for new projects and less involvement of the public sector in the business of the country. They want the non-hydrocarbon sector to contribute more to the economy. All this means that the private sector will invest more in the economy. I anticipate this year Private sector growth to be around QAR 16 billion. Because what we have seen in 8 months, for the first 8 months of the year, because September is not yet out, there was an increase of around 5% in the private sector and it was equal to around QAR 10 billion. Fourth quarter will continue to be growth, I will not be surprised if that number becomes QAR 16 billion. Investment and increase in private sector funding will mean that risk-weighted asset will continue to grow. What is important here, how we are managing the overall capital adequacy ratio. We will continue our payout ratio similar to what we have been doing before. Risk-weighted asset will continue to grow. The most important thing is that capital adequacy ratio. We are keen to maintain a buffer of 200 basic points on the capital adequacy ratio, and this is where we believe that we will be able to maintain. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Ramzi. Once again, I would like to remind the audience, those who joined a little late, to ask a question, please use slido.com, #askqnb. Please mention your name and company name, and we'll announce your question. The next question is from Vikram Viswanathan, NBK Asset Management. Follow up on the answer you just gave us, Ramzi. In which areas do you expect this private sector investments to come from? All ancillary business to oil and gas. We know that the state will heavily invest in gas project that they already announced. All ancillary projects around those projects will be private sector, and already QNB already announced that they want to depend on the private sector in Qatar to be able to support these projects. This is where will be a very important sector. At the same time, in the last two years, private sector investment, especially on the retail sector, SME, industrial, was impacted by COVID-19. Beyond 2021, we believe that the private sector will go back to more and more investment. This is where we believe the most of the new investment will come from. Thank you, Ramzi. We have the next question from Waleed Mohsin, Goldman Sachs. When do you expect cost of risk to start normalizing, given the current macro backdrop, which is obviously quite good? What is your target NPL coverage, and why is stage 3 coverage above 100? Whoever been following up on QNB, and Waleed is one of them, for the last maybe 7 to 10 years, he knows that QNB is a very conservative financial institution. One of the biggest fights I have every single quarter with the auditors is our coverage ratio. We are keen to maintain our ratio above 100% because we want to be ready for any surprises. We don't want any surprises that will impact profitability materially. Cost of risk and the extent of conservatism that we will take, highly is dependent on how we see revenue growing. This year, I think everyone see the momentum in revenue is much better than what we anticipated at the beginning of the year. Net interest income hopefully will grow by 8%, much higher than what I mentioned at the beginning of the year. Overall operating revenue will grow by 8%. That means the momentum of revenue is very strong, and this give us much more room to be conservative in terms of cost of risk. Am I expecting cost of risk next year to be around between the seven and 80? Yes, if the revenue continue at the same momentum that we are seeing today. At the beginning of the year, we said growth on profitability is six to eight. Now we're saying eight to 10. Do I, as CFO, see it right to make it 10 to 12? No. We will continue to grow very strongly, very steadily, with no negative surprises to our investors. This is the way we have been managing the entity for a very long time, and this is where we are going to continue to do. Thank you, Ramzi. Next question is coming from Ayisha Zia. What is the outlook in Turkey? Especially on the NIMs side. This is, I think, one of the most difficult question to be answered, because this is highly dependent on where the regulator is going to take the rate. I think no one in the world can answer this question. Every 100 basis point drop in regulatory rates mean an increase in net interest income of around 200 million TRY for Turkey. They benefit when rates come down. This is highly dependent on their balance sheet as of today. Now, in six months' time, the balance sheet structure, of course, will change. The impact of an increase or decrease on regulatory rate become different. For now, they materially benefit from a drop in the rate. How much is it going to develop? It's very difficult to mention. However, what we have seen in the last 6 years since we have invested in Turkey is that our team in Turkey have been able to manage our margin very efficiently. That is why we haven't seen major fluctuation in margin, even though the Turkish market is extremely complex to operate on because we do not know where the regulator is heading in terms of interest. There is major fluctuation. Sometimes there is drop of 400, 500 basis points, and then again, in 6 months or a year, we see the opposite. For professional people on this organization in the banking sector in Turkey to be able to manage this is extremely complex, and our team in Turkey have been doing a very good job. Until today, we are able to maintain a margin of close to 330 basis points in Turkey, which is very good. Even though net interest income in Turkey was materially impacted in the first 6 months of the year, and I mentioned that in the phone call in June, because of the sharp increase in rates that we have seen. Now we are seeing good progress in net interest income. Fourth quarter net interest income in Turkey will be materially better than what we have seen in the first 9 months. Thank you, Ramzi. Once again, reminder to the audience, to ask a question, please use slido.com #askQNB. Please mention your name and company name, and we will announce your question. I guess in the meantime, I wanted to ask you about the fact that obviously the macro backdrop is good. Current accounts turned positive in the first quarter of this year, but despite that, we have seen some volatility in the exchange rate, QAR-USD exchange rate. Not as big as we had in 2017, of course, but there is some pickup in currency volatility. Is that a sign of some foreign currency deficit in Qatar? How would you interpret this volatility? I will give some room to Mark to handle this question. Just give me a second, please. Hey, Vik. Hi there, everybody. Fine. I think on this one, since the beginning of the year when the blockade came to an end, there's obviously been some very natural rebalancing that's taken place over the past few months, as our international counterparts have really been gradually unwinding their positions that built up over the previous two to three years. This is very clearly evidenced if you look at the exchange rate pricing over the last few months in particular, there's been significant recent convergence back towards the onshore rate. I think it was never going to be a case of there's an agreement in January, everything goes back to normal. Evidently, over the last few months, there's been an unwind, things are balancing, things are regularizing, but it will take more time. The volatility is clearly decreasing, and there is a convergence down towards the onshore rate. From a QNB perspective, this really has minimal impact upon us because the volumes, as we all know, are very, very low indeed. They're negligible in the offshore market, as opposed to onshore transactions. For us, the major driver of the FX business for QNB is onshore volume turnover. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. We have a question from Talal Samhouri, Aventicum Capital. The question is about any plans for expansion inorganically. This is always on the table. Is there anything that we are talking now? Nothing, to be honest. There's nothing on the table today when we are studying. Nothing significant. We will always have small things, but until today, we don't have anything significant. Thank you, Ramzi. Next question is from Rahul Bajaj at Citi. You have done really good work on costs during the last couple years. Is 23% cost-to-income ratio your near-term target, or do you expect cost-to-income ratios to reduce further? In the budget structure, one of the toughest things that financial control department face is managing costs within the group. This is becoming extremely difficult things to do. We expect to close December 2021 at an efficiency rate of less than 22.5%, which is materially lower than the 24.3% which we announced in December 2020, which was much better than where we were in 2019, where we were 25%. However, I know that we cannot continue at that level, especially with the extent of investment and CapEx we are doing, especially in our digital platforms. A ratio of 22.4% or 22.5% is not sustainable. However, we will ensure that we will continue to be around the 23%-23.5%, nothing more than that. I think we are able to do that because we have been doing extremely good job in making our subsidiaries and head office more and more efficient, more dependent on digital platforms, investing mostly on profitable projects. We will continue managing costs very efficiently in order to ensure that cost-to-income ratio continue to be at that level. Thank you, Ramzi. Next question comes from Edmond Christou, Bloomberg Intelligence. Clearly the asset quality has held very well, and there is a buildup in the buffer on Stage 3 loans. How do you see Stage 2 and Stage 3 loans progressing into next year? What is your assessment of domestic private sector as they repay back dues? We talk about what our anticipation to impair. We closed September at 2.3%, and at the beginning of the year, I said I will not be surprised if our impair ratio reached a 2.5% because we see there's still impair ratio going up. As you know, for the last 5 or 6 years, the Central Bank of Egypt was extremely supportive to banks in terms of many perspectives. One of them is to support some industries, for example, the tourism industry. However, in QNB Alahli, we said, no, we'll take a very conservative approach. We will build a very strong coverage ratio so that when these initiatives finish, we will be ready. That's why our coverage ratio reached 145% at some level. We are seeing, as we expected, NPL ratio in Egypt picking up because we are moving some of the accounts which we knew will move to NPL before to an NPL. We still believe today, Egypt NPL ratio is 3.7%. I think the ratio will go up, and I will not be surprised if we see it around the 4%-4.5%. We will maintain our coverage ratio close to the 100%. This will impact the group coverage ratio, that's why I will not be surprised if the ratio moves to 2.5% at a gradual base. Coverage ratio, again, will continue to be conservative. Coverage ratio will continue to be more than 100%, and this is how we are going to manage this. Stage 2. Today, Stage 2 at 6%, close to the indication that I gave at the beginning of the year. December, first half of next year, if we become between the 7%-7.5% Stage 2, again, this will be a reasonable assumption. In terms of coverage for Stage 2, we still have very good coverage of around 7%. Also, we want to maintain that ratio to be around that number. Again, this does not mean that we are seeing weakness on the portfolio. As I mentioned, when we talk about cost of risk, as long as we see strong revenue momentum in the group, QNB will continue to be conservative. We don't want to grow 15% one year and the following year drop by 4% or 5%. This is not the way QNB manages their profitability. We will continue to be conservative in terms of how we manage our costs, how we will be very aggressive in growing our revenue stream, especially not only interest, but also other income. Overall, with the growth of net revenue, we will be conservative in terms of cost of risk. Thank you, Ramzi. There is a follow-up question from Edmond Christou, Bloomberg Intelligence. How should we think of the inflation risk impact on the bank, either domestically, as Qatar is an importer for goods; and in a global context, namely Turkey and Egypt exposure? Additionally, given your reliance on U.S. dollar funding, how do you see cost of funding progressing into the first half of next year? Inflation in Qatar has all been managed very carefully, and we don't see major pickup in inflation. I think this year it's between 1%-1.5%. Next year, I don't know, to be honest, updated number, what is the expectation, but I don't think it will be that much bigger than 2%-2.5%. I don't have the exact number. Of course, inflation in Turkey, very high. We talk about 18%-20%. Egypt also, it's higher than what we are seeing in Qatar. This will impact cost, and that's why I mentioned that the toughest item in the discussion for growth in the budget next year was cost. We will continue to manage this very carefully. The impact of an increase in Fed rates. For the group as a whole, a 100 basis points increase in Fed rate reflect to a positive increase in net interest income of close to QAR 500 million. The group as a whole materially benefit when Fed rate goes up. This is a reflection of the overall balance sheet of the group. We will benefit from the 6-month period. Beyond the 6-month period, it really depends on how we are going to manage our balance sheet. An increase in Fed rate is positive to the group. Thank you, Ramzi. The next question is from Mohammed Adel, Al Faisal Investments. The question is about the regional performance. Turkey grew 7% and Egypt was almost flat. However, international net profit declined around 17% year-on-year. I guess the question is around what's behind this weaker performance in international net profit? COVID-19, it is again, a reflection of the book. COVID-19 materially impacted Egypt, Turkey, and other operation much more than Qatar. Qatar is the bulk of the book. A big chunk of the book is corporate sector, large corporate, which technically they have the depth to be able to absorb the impact of COVID-19, where other jurisdictions, such as Turkey and Egypt, don't. That's why, because of the impact on provisions, we have seen Egypt flat. At the same time, we haven't seen the growth in the economy as we wanted it, and that's why we saw growth in loans at between the 6%-8%, which is much lower than what we wanted it during the year. Next year, we believe the growth in the overall economy will be much stronger. We budgeting a growth in loans of 11%-13%, versus 6%-8%, as I mentioned to CFO. The anticipation for next year for Egypt is much better. Balance sheet wise, we are anticipating a growth of 11%-13%. Profitability, 13%-15%. Hopefully next year the momentum for Al Ahli will be much, much better. Finansbank, they grew 7% in QAR or USD terms. In TRY terms, the growth is materially higher, it was 29%. This year we expect growth in the balance sheet in Turkey between the 20%-22%. Profit or loss, close to 20%. The growth in Turkey is materially higher. We're seeing much better growth in fee income. Net interest income, beyond June, the numbers are much better. Very strong control of cost, that's why numbers for Turkey is very positive. Even 2022, we still anticipate growth in the balance sheet between the 15%-17%, and profitability high double digit. Again, it's good momentum in Turkey in terms of profitability next year. Thank you, Ramzi. We have two questions from Talal Samhouri, Aventicum Capital. The first one is about foreign currency, well, net FX assets. We are seeing continued decline in banking sector net FX assets. What is the reason for that, and would that have any effect on QNB? That's the first question. The second question is about dividend payout ratio. It's been around 40%-60%, last year was at the lower end due to COVID-19, as we know. Would the payout ratio go back to normal this year or compensate for last year's decline? I've been in the bank for 25 years. QNB's payout ratio have never, ever been even 50%, not 60%. I think there is a miscalculation in the numbers that you quoted. The coverage ratio for QNB always range between the 30% to the 40%, and last year it was lower than that. I mean, in the low end of that parameter. However, we will continue to be at that level, between the 30% to the 40%. The first question, the FX position, just give me a second please because there is a fluctuation. It really depends on how we are lending, especially to the public sector. We are keen to keep a very close neutral FX position. These fluctuation usually are temporary. In terms of overall impact on QNB, with the hedges that we do, the implication of this FX position is extremely lower. I hope that I answered the question. Well, yeah. I think the question was about decline in banking sector net FX assets and what's the reason for that. It's mainly how we are managing the overall balance sheet of the group, and how we manage it from a P&L perspective. Thank you, Mr. Ramzi. Next question is from Maji Ezzat from Commercial Bank of Qatar. Well, impact of continued TRY depreciation in the third quarter and the fourth quarter on NPLs and asset quality of Finansbank. Again, I gave the growth percentage that we expect in TRY. In QAR, the anticipation that the growth will be much lower. We expect it to be between 4%-6%. Even QAR, we expect growth, but definitely it will be much lower and profitability will be higher. We still expect it to be between 7%-8%. Devaluation have an impact on the overall growth, but we are trying to manage overall growth in the entity in order to ensure that there will continue to be growth even in QAR. Thank you, Mr. Ramzi. There is a repeat question on cost growth, which was well controlled. If income would grow at around 6%-8%, can cost-to-income ratio drop to 20% in the medium term? No. 20% cannot be. Okay. The budgets that we have for 2022, which is still not final, anticipate an expense ratio close to 22.5%. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ramzi. Once again, if there are any questions, please ask them through slido.com, #askqnb. Please mention your name and your question. Please mention your name and company name, and we'll announce your question. I think in the meantime, I'll just ask about your subsidiary in Egypt. In Egypt, there's quite a bit of growth which is driven by some public sector projects, in the country. The question is, where does QNB Egypt sit in terms of its ability to gain market share in this state-led project finance? Egypt historically was one of the most active private sector banks in the economy of Egypt. Especially in terms of loans to the SME sector, to the corporate sector, even to the public sector. That is why the loan-to-deposit ratio is close to 64%, higher than many other banks in Egypt. We want Egypt to continue to participate in this project, and we are keen to participate in public sector projects. You are going to see more participation from QNB in that sector in 2022. Thank you, Mr. Ramzi. Next question is coming from Bloomberg Intelligence, Admin Crystal. Given expected growth in credit in private sector in the near term, how do you plan to integrate ESG metrics into operating framework, as regional players have been issuing green debt and ESG-linked loans? Thank you. Okay. Let me refer this to the ESG expert, please. Morning. Hi, this is Khalid Al-Naemi. Yes, certainly, on the ESG side, from a framework perspective, we have recently updated our Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Framework. We've received a framework alignment opinion from the likes of S&P on that. Furthermore to this, we are actively looking at opportunities within our books to identify potential green assets to support any further growth within this space. On the green bond itself, recently, as per the ICMA requirements, we have published an impact report, which was done with a second-party provider, as well as conducted an assurance of our allocation reporting as per the ICMA guidelines. Over and above this, we have also published an Environmental and Social Risk Management Policy Framework. Through this framework, now we are looking at how we scan our projects, any originated projects from a corporate banking perspective. Here we screen out any projects which are excluded, basically on our exclusion criteria, which we have developed, as well as certain other factors such as the types of industries and the products that customers are using. Certainly, we are doing a lot of work to integrate this within our financing framework and how we kind of grow the green assets within our portfolio, as well as how we manage the risks that we've identified. Thank you. Thank you. There's another question, ESG related, so please stay on the line. The question is from Valentina Stoevska, Barclays Investment Bank. The question is on debt issuance plans and the ESG initiatives that you're currently working on. Well, in particular, do you plan to commit to net zero targets, Scope 3 emissions reporting or any other social or corporate governance initiatives that you can share with us, how these are linked with your issuance plans for this and next year? I think on the issuance side, I'll actually allow Mark to answer that because that's really dependent on market conditions. On net zero, we have seen a lot of announcements coming out, and honestly, these are very positive commitments and pledges that we're seeing. I think anything that aligns to the Paris Agreement is extremely positive news. On net zero, again, from a state perspective, the state of Qatar has recently issued their updated and second Nationally Determined Contribution. This is a very positive development for the state, and we as QNB will actively support them as they try to achieve the targets that they've outlined within this. Mark, I think if you can. Sure, yes. Thank you. Hello again. Mark here. On the issuance side, whether we do another green bond or we do our regular market issuance, as always with QNB, we don't have a formal issuance program, so whatever we do choose to do is opportunistic. With regards to the green space, in particular, that will be based upon investor demand, appetite, and as always with QNB, the pricing as well. We have no specific requirements or fixed plans, if you like, to issue in this space. But it's a very important part as we grow from our inaugural bond last year. We'll continue to look on an opportunistic basis. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. I'll move on to our next question from Andrew Brudenell, Ashmore Investment Management. The question is about asset growth. Asset growth of 6%-8% in the future looks low, given the macro outlook overall, the North Field expansion in Qatar, and the management's comments of accelerating private investment in Qatar. What would we need to see for growth to be north of 8%? I don't think six I don't think 6%-8% is low because we need to consider also the size of QNB. Today, QNB by end of the year will be QAR 1.13 billion. When we say 8%, it's not a small number. At the same time, please note that historically, QNB was not materially involved in financing oil and gas projects because these projects tend to be financed at a very low rate because there is huge competition, QNB usually doesn't participate. Because we want a margin of 175-225 basis points, and this project definitely will not be at that level, it will be even much, much lower than that. That's why I doubt that QNB will be materially active in financing, considering the competition that this project will see. However, QNB was always active in financing all ancillary projects around this project. Definitely, we always had a market share of more than 60%-70% of that sector, we will continue to do that. A 6%-8% indication at this time is not small. We would aim to be higher. This year I started by talking about 6%-8%, now we talk about 7%-9%. It is higher. Let's do the same for 2022. Let's see how the progress is going to be. Definitely QNB will maintain the market share in Qatar, which is around 50%-52%. This definitely will not be impacted. Thank you, Ramzi. I'll move on to the next question, from Nikhil Puthran. It seems write-off of stage 3 loans has been on an increasing trend. Can we see continuity in this going forward? The bulk of the write-offs that you are seeing happened from Turkey. Turkey, they have a system whereby once you have a 100% provision against some loans, there are specialized companies that come and buy these loans from you. Usually the purchase price is between 15%-25% of the value. It's a good business to both parties. Most of these write-offs is reflected this one. QNB Doha is unfortunately not active on the write-off even though. This put us in a very difficult position when we compare QNB with the peer. The peer group in the region is very active on write-offs. QNB Doha is not because the central bank historically was extremely hesitant to approve any write-off even for loans which have 100% provision. All exhaustion have been taking place in terms of write-offs, legal action, foreclosures. They're very hesitant to approve write-offs. That's why this put us sometimes in unfair comparison with the peer group in the GCC. Thank you, Mr. Ramzi. I'll move on to the next question from Maya Abou Daher, Schroders. The question is about the medium-term return on equity for the group. Where do you see your medium-term ROE, and what would be the key driver of the change from the 15% level? The momentum, that will be two factors. Number 1, how much payout ratio we're going to maintain. If it's going to go up to 45% or we are going to make it achieve between, let's say, 35%-40%. It's a very important factor. The growth and the profitability. If we assume a growth and profitability that will continue between, let's say, the 7%-10% for the next 3 years with a 40% payout ratio, I think the ratio will continue to be between the 15 and a half to the 16 and a half, which is a very good ratio considering the size of QNB. Thank you, Mr. Ramzi. We appear to have no further questions at this time in the queue. I think on this note, I would like to thank everyone for their participation in today's conference call, and I would like to thank the entire management team of Qatar National Bank for their insights. Thank you for everyone, hope to see you in early January. Thank you, Mr. Ramzi. Have a good day. This ends our conference call today. Thanks, everyone.