Emaar reports fourth quarter profit of $1.4m

12 February 2009
UAE-based developer Emaar Properties made a profit of just AED5m ($1.4m) in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to its latest set of results.

The property developer also reported a 15 per cent fall in annual net profits, from AED6.6bn in 2007 to AED5.6bn in 2008. Annual revenues fell by 10 per cent from AED17.9bn to AED16bn.

The low fourth quarter profits of AED5m came after the company wrote off AED919m from the value of inventory held by US real estate firm J L Homes.

Before the write-down, profits for the fourth quarter were AED924m.
Fourth quarter revenues were AED3.5bn.

Emaar blamed its weak results on a slowdown in the Dubai real estate market and the current state of the global financial climate.

The company says it is concentrating on completing all of its projects which have commenced construction, while other projects have been put on hold to help reduce the real estate property supply in Dubai.

“The primary focus of Emaar in the last quarter of the year was to mitigate the negative impact of the global financial crisis by facing up to the new economic realities and identifying innovative strategies to sustain businesses in an unprecedented downturn,” says Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties.

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