It seems that the 'bouncebackability' of Dubai has not automatically passed onto all of its entities, because as the emirate as a whole got up and started to dust itself down, one of its flag-bearers, Islamic mortgage provider, Amlak is still out for the count.
The troubled Shari'ah compliant home finance firm posted a AED106m ($29m) loss in first-half results released yesterday, as revenues fell 17% from the same time last year, due to the continued freeze on new mortgages that has been in place since its suspension from trading.
Provisions for bad mortgages almost doubled in the same period, reaching Dh120m ($32.7m) and with UAE interest rates slashed, things look bleak for the firm.
For the quarter, the lender made a net loss of AED52.2m ($14.2m) compared with a loss of AED597k ($162.5k) last year. The UAE government suspended trading of Amlak along with rival Tamweel in November 2008 and tried to force through a shotgun wedding of sorts as the financial crisis took its toll.
However, the arranged marriage failed and Tamweel was effectively taken over by Dubai Islamic Bank last year, but Amlak remained under the care of the government, in many ways to mitigate the risk of property developer Emaar, which owns 45% of the firm.
The Islamic Globe was unable to reach a spokesperson for Amlak for comment.
© The Islamic Globe 2011
