Sorouh makes it a hatrick of profits for UAE developers

Sorouh Real Estate, the Abu Dhabi developer weighing a $15 billion merger with Aldar, has capped a quarter of rising profits for the country’s big three property groups.

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Sorouh Real Estate, the Abu Dhabi developer weighing a $15 billion merger with Aldar, has capped a quarter of rising profits for the country’s big three property groups.

First-quarter profit rose 30 per cent to Dh83.59 million compared to a year earlier, Abu Dhabi’s second-largest property company said in a stock exchange filing today.

“The current flight to quality with Abu Dhabi real estate leaves us well positioned to deliver an exciting pipeline of some 7,000 units between now and the end of 2013,” said Sorouh managing director, Abubaker Seddiq Al Khouri.

Sorouh’s results come as the country’s three largest property developers benefit from handover revenues and emerge from a near four-year decline in property prices.

Home sales on national housing projects and the delivery of units on residential developments such as the Sun and Sky Towers helped to drive Sorouh’s profit growth in the three months to March 2012.

Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi’s largest developer on Saturday said its first quarter profit more than doubled as it handed over completed apartments to investors. Emaar Properties, the Dubai-based company that built the world’s tallest tower, also reported a 44 per cent increase in first-quarter profit.

Sorouh and Aldar last month said they were studying a $15 billion (Dh55.09bn) merger in what would be the biggest consolidation of listed property assets in Abu Dhabi.

“The evaluation process to look at the legal and business aspects of a potential merger is now underway and the ultimate outcome of this process will take into account the best interests of shareholders,” the company said in the statement today.

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