MANAMA: Bahrain Duty Free Shop Complex (BDFS) is in talks with Aer Rianta International to potentially partner in managing duty-free shops in airports in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

This was revealed by the company’s chairman Farouk Almoayyed on the sidelines of the company’s annual and extraordinary general meetings at Downtown Rotana yesterday.

“The last two years of 2020 and 2021 were extremely difficult and as the pandemic wanes, Bahrain Duty Free Shop is poised to take on its new role as a fully-fledged investment company. We will continue to explore opportunities that are in line with our vision to enable us to pursue growth and success in the years ahead,” he added.

Commenting on the company’s performance in the past year and future expectations, Mr Almoayyed said: “The company achieved good financial results for the year 2021 in the midst of the ongoing challenges of the pandemic and the general and direct impact on the travel sector in terms of air traffic, lack of travellers and retail sales.”

The chairman of the company said the gradual return of air traffic and travelers in many countries, after they opened up, and the widespread removal of travel restrictions is expected to reflect positively on the travel sector pushing duty-free sales to return to pre-pandemic levels soon.

The meeting saw shareholders approval of cash dividend of 30 per cent, equivalent to 30 fils per share and amounting to BD4,268,158, for 2021 to be distributed to shareholders by March 31, 2022.

For the full year 2021, the company reported gross revenues of BD806,000 representing a decrease of 94.8pc from 2020.

Similarly, gross profits earned were BD488,000 down on prior year by 91.2pc.

BDFS has reported net investment income from all related activities for 2021 was BD2.1m, an increase of BD1.2m or 144.8pc compared to prior year.

The changes in performance are due to the transfer of duty free operations at the Bahrain International Airport to the new joint venture, Bahrain Duty Free Company (BDFC), which commenced operations in January 2021.

Bahrain Duty Free Shop Complex owns 55pc stake in BDFC with Gulf Air Group Holding (GFG) as the JV partner.

BDFC currently runs core duty free and speciality retail concessions over a combined footprint of around 4,700sqm.

Yesterday’s meeting also approved the appointment of Abdulla Buhindi, Jawad Al Hawaj, Jehad Amin, Jalal Mohammed Jalal, Jassim Al Shaikh, Abdulrahman Jamsheer, Farouk Almoayyed,

Mohammed Al Zain, Mohammed Al Khan, Amal Mehle and Shaikh Mohamed bin Ali Al Khalifa to the company’s board of directors for the next three years.

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