Profits at Abu Dhabi listed Eshraq Properties almost halved during the third quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, but increased slightly ear to date.
In its financial accounts for the three months to September published today, the company reported that profits fell 42.5 per cent from Dh244.3 million to Dh140.8m during the same period the year before.
However, profits for the first nine months of the year rose 6.9 per cent from Dh252.2m to Dh269.7m.
Revenues from land sales fell 29 per cent to Dh321m during the third quarter compared with the previous year. However, over the nine-month period they too showed signs of improvement, rising 25.5 per cent, from Dh491.9m to Dh617.6m.
Eshraq, which listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in 2011, has been hit hard by the global financial crisis, forcing the company to put on hold development work and concentrate on selling off land plots.
However, in April the property developer said it planned to restart work on The Gateway mixed-use scheme of 15 towers and two blocks of serviced apartments on Abu Dhabi island and up to 500 flats on Reem Island in the last quarter of this year.
Eshraq provided no updates on its development projects in its financial statement.
The company said that it had made loan repayments of Dh505,272 during the period to pay off interest accrued on a Dh15m loan from Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, which it had taken out in 2010 with an interest rate of 1 per cent over the highest rate payable.
The company added that general and administrative expenses had more than halved over the third quarter from Dh4.8m to Dh2.1m, while sales and marketing costs more than doubled over the same period from Dh19,000 to Dh41,700.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
