Waha Capital posts 85 per cent fall in second-quarter profit

The Abu Dhabi investment company Waha Capital posted an 85 per cent drop in second-quarter net profit from the same period year as a result of a one-off gain booked last year.

Net profit attributable to equity holders plummeted to Dh166.9 million, Waha Capital said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Total income fell 77 per cent to Dh297.2m from Dh1.28 billion in the year-earlier period.

The Abu Dhabi-listed company had made a profit of Dh1.13bn in the April-to-June period last year on gains related to its stake in the New York-listed airline leasing company AerCap Holdings, which acquired International Lease Finance Corporation in May last year.

Waha Capitalincreased its stake in AerCap to 13.6 per cent from 12.6 per cent at the end of last year after the airline leasing company bought back $750m worth of shares from New York-based insurer American International Group (AIG) in June.

“We have focused on growing and diversifying our assets across different sectors with high growth potential and are in the process of finalising our capital market product offering to third-party investors later this year – this will help us further expand our revenue mix,” said Salem Al Noaimi, Waha Capital’s chief executive.

“At the same time, we are studying new investment opportunities in energy, infrastructure, health care and education, both locally and regionally, which will add to the quality of our portfolio.”

Mr Al Noaimi said in May the company was still weighing up new investment opportunities and was looking to spend Dh4bn in the fields of health care, education, energy and infrastructure.

Waha Capital last year bought a 20 per cent equity stake valued at Dh279m in UAE’s energy services company, National Petroleum Services, as it seeks to invest more heavily in the energy sector. Waha was part of a consortium of investors that included Fajr Capital and the Arab Petroleum Investment Corp, with the overall deal valued at Dh1.36bn. The Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Development owns a 15.4 per cent stake in Waha.

Waha Capital’s first half net profit soared 224 per cent to Dh349m, compared with adjusted net profit of Dh107.8m a year earlier after removing the one-off gain from AerCap.

Besides its investment in AerCap, Waha Capital’s first half net profit was bolstered by strong growth from its investment in the consumer finance firm Dunia Finance and its capital markets division, which invests in credit and equity markets.

Waha Capital’s shares closed down 2.42 per cent to Dh2.42 in Abu Dhabi.

dalsaadi@thenational.ae

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