|By TAP Staff| Emaar Properties reported a 16 percent rise in second-quarter net profit as other income increased and it received more money in income tax credits.
Emaar made a net profit of 1.18 billion dirhams ($321.3 million) in the three months to June 30, up from 1.02 billion dirhams on the prior-year period, the company said in a statement.
SICO Bahrain had forecast Emaar’s second-quarter profit would be 817 million dirhams.
The developer has now reported rising profits in nine straight quarters and achieved its latest increase despite relatively sluggish revenue growth and with analysts noting a marked slowdown in Dubai’s recently resurgent property sector.
Emaar’s second-quarter revenue was 3.48 billion dirhams, up from 3.34 billion dirhams a year earlier. Cost of revenue rose 11 percent to 1.63 billion dirhams.
The firm’s other income swung to a gain of 144 million dirhams from a small loss a year ago and it also received income tax credits of 90 million dirhams versus 6 million dirhams in the second quarter of 2014.
For the first half of this year, Emaar’s net profit rose 12 percent to 2.21 billion dirhams as revenue increased 13 percent to 6.50 billion dirhams.
Emaar generated 6.12 billion dirhams in Dubai property sales in the first half of 2015.
It did not provide a comparative figure for the same period of last year, but consultants have noted a substantial slowdown in the emirate’s property sector.
Home sales shrank by about two-thirds in the first half of 2015, and prices also slipped, with further declines expected over the rest of the year, property consultants JLL said in a report last week.
