Abu Dhabi corporate income dips

Abu Dhabi’s listed companies ended the first nine months of 2010 with a decline of nearly 12 per cent in their collective profits and the real estate sector emerged as the worst performer, their balance sheets showed on Tuesday.

Banking, insurance, energy, and industry firms reported higher earnings but there was a fall in the income of all other sectors, including real estate, construction, telecommunications, health and consumer services, showed the figures published by the semi official Arabic language daily Alittihad.

From around Dh24.9 billion in the first nine months of 2009, the combined net profits of 64 listed companies that released quarterly financial results slumped by around 12 per cent to Dh21.9 billion in the first nine months of 2010.

Third quarter earnings edged up by about one per cent to Dh7.62 billion from Dh7.552 billion in the same period of last year, the report showed.

“The banking, energy and industry sectors were the best performers among the nine listed sectors in Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange as their net income recorded growth in the third quarter and in the first nine months,” it said.

It showed the net profits of the emirate’s five banks grew by around 2.6 per cent to Dh7.618 billion in the first nine months of this year from Dh7.424 billion in the first nine months of 2009. In the first quarter of 2010, the earnings swelled by nearly 15.5 per cent year-on-year, it said.

A breakdown showed the profits of energy companies leaped by around 41.6 per cent in the first nine months of 2010 while there was an increase of around 29.5 per cent in insurance firms and 26.5 per cent in industry.

“Five other sectors recorded the worst performance in the first nine months…there was a decline in the income by around 81 per cent in real estate, 39.5 per cent in construction, 26.5 per cent in consumer services, 17.3 per cent in telecommunications and 12.2 per cent in medical services,” it said.

It showed the combined net earnings of the three listed real estate companies, Aldar, Surouh and Ras Al-Khaimah Properties, plummeted to Dh382.7 million in the first nine months of 2010 from Dhtwo billion in the first nine months of 2009.

Their quarterly profits also dipped by nearly 73.5 per cent to Dh130.5 million from around Dh493.5 million in the first quarter of 2009.

Aldar was the main victim of the slump, suffering from a loss of around Dh1.5 billion in the first nine months of this year. Surouh’s profits plunged by 54 per cent in the first nine months and by 66 per cent in the third quarter.
 

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