Dubai, February 12: Dubai-based real estate giant Emaar Properties, builder of the world’s tallest tower, on Thursday posted a meagre net profit for the second year running despite a surge in the fourth quarter.
The company said it posted a net profit of 89.1 million dollars in 2009, compared with just 45.1 million dollars in the previous year, due to heavy losses from its operations in the United States.
Before the global financial crisis, Emaar, the largest listed firm in Dubai, posted a net profit of 1.8 billion dollars in 2007.
Emaar said in a statement on the Dubai Financial Market website it posted a net operating profit of 2.324 billion dirhams (633 million dollars) last year compared with 4.236 billion dirhams (1.153 billion dollars) in 2008.
But it incurred losses of 1.997 billion dirhams (544 million dollars) from what it called “discontinued operations,” impairment of assets and share of impairment in the group’s financial associate.
The group had written off the net assets of WL Homes in the United States.
The net operating profit decreased in 2009 due to provisions made by Emaar’s associated companies in the financial sector, it said.
Revenues in 2009 reached 2.29 billion dollars compared with 2.9 billion dollars in the previous year, the company said.
Net profit in the fourth quarter of 2009 stood at 720 million dirhams (196 million dollars), after heavy losses of 2.43 billion dirhams (662.4 million dollars) in the corresponding period in 2008.
The real estate market in the once-bustling emirate of Dubai has been strongly hit by the global economic downturn with prices of units plunging by around half.
—Agencies