Abu Dhabi's TDIC eyes breakeven after 2011 losses

Abu Dhabi’s TDIC eyes breakeven after 2011 losses

Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development Investment Company (TDIC), builder of branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim, made a net loss of 1.27 billion UAE dirhams ($346 million) in 2011 due to asset writedowns amid a regional property slump.

June 29, 2012 8:23 by Reuters

The state-owned company added that higher deliveries of residential properties this year may help the state-owned developer break even in 2012.

The loss, “driven predominantly by increased depreciation of newly completed assets, was lower than projected due to strong cost control across the company”, TDIC said in a statement on state news agency WAM.

In an interview in February, TDIC said it had an operating loss of between 150 million dirhams to 200 million dirhams before EBIDTA in 2010 and could double its losses in 2011.

“A combination of the opening of revenue-generating assets and exceptional residential sales suggests that 2012′s financial statements could show a positive EBITDA performance for the first time in the company’s history,” Ahmed al Fahim, executive director of sales and leasing said.

TDIC’s sales totalled 2.1 billion dirhams in 2011 and the company had over 2 billion dirhams in cash at the end of the year, the statement said.