RAK Properties net falls 23.5% to Dh379.5m

RAK Properties, listed on the Abu Dhabi stock exchange, yesterday said its full year net profit fell to Dh379.5 million, down 23.5 per cent from Dh496.2m in 2007.

The company posted a near 74-per cent drop in fourth-quarter profit to Dh50.9m.

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

It also booked a provision for impairment of Dh58.86m for the year, it said in a statement on the Abu Dhabi bourse website, without giving details. RAK Properties earned Dh193.92m in the fourth quarter of 2007 and Dh328.52m in the first nine months of 2008.

RAK Properties' total equity for the full year 2008 rose 7.8 per cent to Dh3.128 billion, from a year earlier.

Earnings per share fell to Dh0.19 for the full year 2008, compared to Dh0.25 in 2007, the company said on the Abu Dhabi bourse website.

The UAE's 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 had 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.

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