Quarterly profit slips 9% for Amanat Holdings

Faisal bin Juma Belhoul, the chairman of the Amanat board, said his company would continue with its focused investment approach this year. Lee Hoagland / The National

Education and healthcare provider Amanat Holdings on Tuesday reported a 9 per cent annual decline in fourth-quarter net profit.

Profit came in at Dh1.65 million in the last quarter of 2016 compared with Dh1.8m a year earlier, which excluded one-off gains from the sale of Amanat’s stake in Al Noor Hospitals for Dh56.2m in 2015. It posted a net profit of Dh58m for the last quarter of 2015.

The Dubai-listed company’s full-year net profit in 2016 touched Dh38.4m.

“We look forward to the next financial year as we support the growth of our existing portfolio and continue to identify additional opportunities that meet our focused investment approach,” said Faisal bin Juma Belhoul, the chairman of the Amanat board.

Amanat invested Dh540m last year. In April, it acquired a 16.34 per cent stake in Dubai-based school and nursery education provider Madaares for Dh145.8m. Madaares operates four nurseries and six schools in the UAE.

Amanat also acquired a 13.18 per cent interest in International Medical Company, a 300-bed multi-speciality hospital in Saudi Arabia’s Western Region for Dh359.8m.

Last year, it approved a loan of Dh92.5m to its Saudi Arabian healthcare company Sukoon, out of which Dh34.4m has been used to fund working capital requirements.

Until the end of last year, Amanat said that it had invested Dh737m in the UAE and Saudi Arabia healthcare and education sectors, representing almost 29.4 per cent of its total capital.

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