18 August 2019
Stock exchange-listed Saudi cement companies nearly tripled their net profits in the first half of 2019 due to a sharp recovery in public project activity, a newspaper in the largest Arab economy said on Sunday.

From around 351.6 million Saudi riyals ($93.7 million) in the first half of 2018, their net earnings soared to around 11.1 billion riyals ($293.3 million) in the first half of 2019, the Arabic language daily Al-Madina said.

Citing corporate balance sheets, the report showed the listed firms recorded a net income of nearly 479.5 million riyals ($127.8 million) in the second quarter of 2019 compared to losses of nearly 47.2 million riyals ($12.58 million) in the second quarter of 2018.

"Reports by some companies said the improvement in their performance this year was due to a surge in government spending on projects and a sharp expansion in housing projects in the Kingdom," the paper said, adding that most Saudi cement producers suffered from a surge in stocks last year due to project downturn.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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