Dubai property developer Nakheel reported an 8 percent rise in its first-quarter profit on Wednesday.
Nakheel made a profit of 1.47 billion dirham ($400.26 million) in the three months to March 31, up from 1.35 billion dirhams a year earlier, it said in a statement.
The company did not state its revenue or reveal other financial details but said the profit rise was mainly due to it handing over 536 completed units and its “retail, residential leasing and hospitality businesses all showing a strong performance”.
During the first quarter of 2016, Nakheel opened Dragon Mart 2, almost doubling the size of the Dragon Mart mall complex to 2.2 million sq ft of leasable space.
Q1 also saw the opening of Nakheel’s first hotel, a 251 room property, attached to Dragon Mart 2, managed by Accor.
Nakheel said it is on target to officially open a 300,000 sq ft extension to its flagship Ibn Battuta Mall in Q2, and will continue to grow its portfolio of retail and residential leasing assets.
Nakheel chairman Ali Rashid Lootah said: “Our first quarter results are very encouraging and reflect investor confidence in Dubai and its real estate sector. The figures set the benchmark for us to further improve and generate better results.
“We remain confident and will continue to execute our business plan, in turn contributing positively to Dubai’s real estate sector in line with the Government’s 2021 vision.
“Our strategy to create more cash-generating assets and strengthening Nakheel ‘s asset base to further boost our business and financial results in the coming years is beginning to yield results.”
The Dubai real estate market has softened since late 2014 after a three-year boom fed by an influx of cash from politically unstable Arab nations. Residential prices were down 10 percent in the first three months of 2016 compared with the same period last year, consultants JLL said on Tuesday.
Despite this, Dubai developers are pressing ahead with their construction plans. Nakheel is seeking 5 billion dirhams from banks to fund its projects, in its first attempt to raise sizeable debt since it was forced into a $16 billion debt restructuring at the turn of the decade.
* With Reuters
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