Dubai Investments Q2 profit falls 32 pct

Dubai Investments PJSC (“DI”), the largest investment company listed on the Dubai Financial Market, today announced its financial results for the six-month period ended 30th June 2010 (“the Period”).

DI reported net profit of AED 474 million for the Period with total income at AED 1.67 billion. The Company’s total liabilities as at 30th June 2010 stand at AED 5.04 billion, while non-current assets total AED 8.62 billion. The annualized return on share capital achieved for the Period is 27%.

“The Company is well capitalized with equity of AED 8.87 billion over an asset base of AED 13.91 billion with leverage ratio at less than 25%. It is because of this low leveraged structure that DI has been able to maintain its strong market position and achieve consistent results even in these difficult times,” said Khalid Bin Kalban, Managing Director and CEO of Dubai Investments PJSC.

“The main drivers of DI’s revenue are its industrial, real estate and financial investments and it is therefore encouraging to see signs of recovery in the regional economies,” Kalban added.

As part of the continuous expansion of Dubai Investments Park, the largest integrated business and residential community in the Middle East, the development of area I and II of Phase VII was completed during the Period, while work on remaining areas of Phase VII and the entire phase VIII is currently under progress. Phase VIII will spread across 500,000 square meters and will be a hub for logistics services as significant portion of land has been allocated for this sector.

Sounding positive about the remaining half of the year, Kalban said, “We expect the positive trend to continue and our focus will continue to remain on optimizing costs and increasing revenues by identifying new geographical markets and business segments.”

“The Company has already initiated processes for the M’Sharie IPO planned for 2011 and is in active discussions with local stock exchanges. The IPO of M’Sharie will result in raising liquidity and will provide a platform for future growth,” Kalban added.