2017 will be positive, insists Dubai Investments

Dubai Investments, a diversified company in which sovereign fund Investment Corporation of Dubai owns an 11.5 per cent stake, has asserted that its outlook for this year remains positive, despite a 3 per cent drop in first quarter profits.

The conglomerate, which owns Dubai Investments Park and about 40 subsidiaries and joint ventures, on Sunday said that net profit slipped to Dh289 million for the first three months of the year, compared with Dh297.6m for the same period last year.

“The company’s outlook for the remaining of 2017 is positive with various real estate developments in the pipeline,” said Khalid Bin Kalban, Dubai Investments’ managing director and chief executive, in a statement on the Dubai bourse.

He noted that income for the quarter was lower than the equivalent period in 2016 because of the Dh187m gained in the latter period thanks to the divestment of its stakes in Marmum Dairy Farm and United Sales Partners.

“Excluding this one-off item, the net profit for Q1 2017 has increased by Dh178m,” he said.

“This has been driven by growth in rental income which has contributed to an increase in underlying cash flows of investment properties, thereby, resulting in gain on fair valuation.”

Rental income, its largest revenue stream, grew by 8.2 per cent to Dh224m compared with the same period last year.

The company also benefited from a gain of Dh174.8m thanks to a revaluation of its investment properties portfolio. It is finalising its participation in an infrastructure development, similar to Dubai Investment Parks, in Riyadh, said Mr Kalban, and is also evaluating proposals for similar opportunities in Africa.

Dubai Investments shares fell on Sunday by as much as 1.9 per cent to Dh2.11 in Dubai.

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter