Al Qudra, an Abu Dhabi holding company that has interests in hydrocarbons and tourism, said on Tuesday that its profits almost doubled in 2014.
Net profit increased to Dh104 million last year from Dh63m in 2013, while revenues rose by 124 per cent to Dh1.55 billion last year from Dh694m the previous year. As a result, the board of directors has recommended a 7 per cent cash dividend distribution to shareholders compared to 5 per cent for the year before.
The company did not give a reason for the income gain but said at the forefront of its activities last year was its establishment of two companies, Al Qudra Ravago Investment, which markets and sells plastic waste, and Al Qudra & New Line Oil & Gas Co, which specialises in the installation, repair and maintenance of oil and natural gas rigs.
The company said it had purchased 57,000 square metres of land on the Corniche area of Rabat in Morocco where the company will build a five star hotel called Qasr Al Bahr.
The 240-room hotel will be built at the cost of about 800 million Moroccan dirhams (Dh293.8m) and is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2018. Al Qudra also has plans to build a chain of three-star hotel apartments in Rabat and other Moroccan cities, with the first of them to be inaugurated in the last quarter of 2015.
The company, which was founded in 2005, also has activities in banking, finance, health care and education.
mkassem@thenational.ae
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