Dubai's Tamweel Q3 profit falls 29 percent

Islamic mortgage lender Tamweel in which Dubai Islamic Bank took a majority stake in September, said its third-quarter net profit fell 29 percent as income fell from Islamic financing and investing assets.

Tamweel had a net profit of AED7.34m ($2m) in the third quarter, it said in a statement on Tuesday, compared with AED10.3m a year earlier.

Income from Islamic financing and investing assets fell by nearly a third to AED128.97m from AED178m during the same time last year.

Net profit for the first nine months of the year was AED18m compared with a loss of AED65m in the same period last year.

Dubai Islamic Bank raised its state in Tamweel in September to 57.33 percent, effectively rendering Tamweel a subsidiary of DIB, in a move that was expected to help revive lending in Dubai's property market.

Tamweel said on Sunday that DIB had bought 339.3 million shares of Tamweel, from Dubai Capital Group, Istithmar World and Dubai Financial Market.

The firm said that it would start issuing fresh mortgages once DIB lays out plan for the company in detail.

The UAE government said in November 2008 it intended to merge Tamweel and rival Islamic mortgage lender Amlak. Shares in the two have not traded since. The company on Sunday that its shares should resume trading soon. ($1=AED3.672)