Ezdan Real Estate
Company’s chairman Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani, a member of the
Qatari ruling family, has donated 605 million shares in the Middle East and
Africa’s largest property developer to Islamic charity.
The shares
are valued at QR13.98 billion riyals ($3.8 billion) at Monday’s close on
the Qatari bourse.
The donation was made as an Islamic endowment,
according to an e-mailed statement. Endowments in Islam are assets
or funds dedicated for the needy and for building places of worship.
“There is no
doubt that the success that Ezdan is achieving, as it expands and
develops year after year, will lead to an increase in the value of the
shares donated to charity to, God willing, the equivalent of about
18,000 housing units,” Al Thani said.
Ezdan, which
is building housing projects, malls and schools in Qatar, closed
unchanged at 23.1 riyals in Doha trading on Monday. The shares have dropped
24 percent so far this year and are down 29 percent from a record on
April 2008.
The
developer said first-quarter profit slumped 49 percent to QR36.8 million from the year earlier without giving a reason for the decline.
The company’s shares started trading in 2008.
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