Dubai Investments posts 2011 profit drop

Dubai Investments posts 2011 profit drop

Conglomerate Dubai Investments, whose manufacturing business was hit by political unrest in Libya and Syria last year, swung to a quarterly loss on Monday, hurt by lower asset valuations.

January 30, 2012 3:05 by Reuters

The firm, in which sovereign fund Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) owns an 11.5-percent stake, had a fourth quarter loss of 61.4 million dirhams ($16.72 million), according to Reuters calculation. That compared with profit of 117.4 million dirhams in the prior-year period in 2010.

It reported 2011 net profit of 202.5 million dirhams on Monday, down from 805 million dirhams in the previous year. The company did not provide fourth-quarter figures.

Reuters calculated quarterly profit from previous financial statements. Nine-month profit to Sept. 30 was 263.9 million dirhams.

“The profit for the year 2011 is comparatively lower mainly due to lesser fair valuation gain on investment properties and loss on fair valuation of investments,” it said in a statement.

Dubai Investments, which has interests in several sectors including property and manufacturing, said total assets stood at 13.8 billion dirhams for the year ended Dec. 30 from 14.1 billion dirhams in 2010.

In October, it said it had secured 700 million dirhams ($190.6 million) of a 1.2 billion dirham loan it wanted to raise to expand its operations.

Shares of Dubai Investments ended 1.5 percent lower on the Dubai stock exchange before the earnings were announced. ($1 = 3.6731 UAE dirhams) (Reporting by Mirna Sleiman; Writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by Amran Abocar)