Kuwait's KIPCO Positive On Second Half; Q2 Profit Up 0.9 Percent

Kuwait’s KIPCO Positive On Second Half; Q2 Profit Up 0.9 Percent

Q2 net profit 8.58 mln dinars vs 8.50 mln a year ago; Sees positive signs for outlook in Q2 results

August 5, 2012 3:45 by Reuters

Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO), the country’s largest investment company, said it was positive about its outlook for the latter half of 2012 after reporting a 0.9-percent increase in second-quarter net profit on Sunday.

Net profit in the three months to June 30 rose to 8.58 million dinars ($30.42 million), a bourse statement said, compared to 8.50 million dinars in the same period last year.

KIPCO said its financial services business was showing improvements while its real estate and media sectors were also meeting the company’s expectations for 2012.

“These are very positive signs and we hope these performance trends will continue into our third and final quarter financial results,” Masaud Hayat, KIPCO’s chief executive for banking, said in a separate statement.

KIPCO, a major regional investment house with stakes in media, industrial, financial and real estate companies, sounded a similarly-confident note on its full-year outlook when reporting its last set of quarterly results in May.

KIPCO’s shares closed at 0.36 dinars on the Kuwait stock exchange on Thursday, trimming year-to-date gains to 23.9 percent. The stock has vastly outperformed the main Kuwait index , which was down 1.6 percent as investor confidence ebbed due to the country’s ongoing political turmoil and its impact on the economy. (Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Mirna Sleiman and David French)