Net profit at Emirates Reit, the UAE’s first listed real estate investment trust, fell by 36.3 per cent in the first three months of this year compared with a year ago because of a slump in valuation gains.
According to a company statement on Nasdaq Dubai, net profit for the first three months of this year stood at US$9.1 million, down from $14.3m a year earlier.
Emirates Reit said that the amount of cash it had made from revaluation gains had fallen by 59.2 per cent to $4.9m in the first quarter of 2017 compared with $12.1m a year earlier. The company said the slump in revaluation gains was the result of its “maturing portfolio that generates more stable cash flows”.
Nonetheless, net rental income rose by 30.5 per cent to $10.7m compared with $8.2m in the first quarter of 2016.
The company said that the increase reflected 20 new office leases being signed at its Index Tower office block in Dubai as well as income from Jebel Ali School and the first rental payments from British Columbia Canadian School.
Emirates Reit said that its total portfolio value stood at $763.5m, an increase of 10 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2016 when it stood at $692.2m.
“The major improvement we achieved in funds from operations shows that we are on track to achieve our goal of paying out a higher dividend to the owners of the Reit,” said Sylvain Vieujot, the chief executive of Equitativa Dubai, the Reit Manager.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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