RAK Properties Q4 profit plunges 74 per cent

RAK Properties posted a near 74-per cent drop in fourth-quarter profit to Dh50.9 million ($13.86 million), the latest United Arab Emirates property developer to suffer during a real estate downturn.

RAK Properties, based in the UAE emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, said it lost Dh60.81 million in the fair value of investments in 2008, compared with a profit of Dh29.38 million a year earlier.

It also booked a provision for impairment of Dh58.86 million for the year, it said in a statement on the Abu Dhabi bourse website, without giving details.

The UAE's once-booming real estate sector is going through a price correction that has seen the average cost of residential real estate fall by about a quarter in Dubai since late last year.

Emaar Properties of Dubai posted a loss in the fourth quarter, while Abu Dhabi developers Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate saw profits tumble 85 per cent and 90 per cent, respectively.

RAK Properties's full-year profit fell to Dh379.46 million from Dh496.23 million in 2007, the company said, without giving quarterly data, which Reuters calculated from previous financial statements.

RAK Properties earned Dh193.92 million in the fourth quarter of 2007 and Dh328.52 million in the first nine months of 2008.

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