Waha Capital, the Abu Dhabi-based investment company, said its net profit in the first quarter dropped by 50 per cent year on year following a revaluation of its investment in the airplane leasing company AerCap.
Net profit for the period declined to Dh87.6 million, compared with Dh175.8m. Waha Capital said the drop was mostly because of an adjustment of Dh58.8m against the share of income from AerCap following a conservative reassessment of the recoverable amount on the company’s stake in the aircraft leasing group.
Abu Dhabi-owned Mubadala Investment Company is the single largest investor in Waha Capital, with a 14.3 per cent stake.
“Waha Capital manages a well-balanced portfolio of investments that is delivering a solid performance despite a difficult operating environment for some sectors,” said Salem Al Noaimi, the company’s chief executive and managing director.
“Our asset-management business has delivered truly excellent performance from its credit and equity funds and is now an important revenue stream. We intend to continue to build this business, adding private debt to our asset mix and offering this as a new fund.”
The company’s asset-management division, which accounts for two thirds of total income, had Dh1.6 billion of assets under management at the end of March. Waha Capital said it had provided significant seed money for its funds, which it has been marketing to third-party investors for the past two years.
Waha Middle East and North Africa Equity Fund had total return of 4.9 per cent during the first quarter, following an 18 per cent gain in 2016.
Waha Capital said that its income from capital markets was Dh83.4m in the first quarter, a 15.4 per cent decline from Dh98.6m in the same period last year.
The company said it was in the process of launching a new fund, Waha Private Debt Fund, and has committed US$50m in seed money into it.
The company’s total assets increased by 4.9 per cent to Dh10.5bn at the end of March, it said.
Waha shares fell 0.6 per cent.
mkassem@thenational.ae
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