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Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi’s largest listed developer, reported a drop in earnings for the first quarter (Q1) of 2019, in line with analysts’ forecasts, but beat estimates at the operating level.
Aldar’s Q1 2019 net profit attributable to the company’s shareholders amounted to 552.97 million UAE dirhams ($150.55 million), compared to 669.47 million dirhams in Q1 2018, a 17.4 percent drop, in line with SICO Bank’s estimate of 547 million dirhams.
“Importantly – the result was a beat at the operating level with EBITDA of AED 643 million (flat year-on-year and up 10 percent quarter-on-quarter) against our estimate of AED 577 million,” Ayub Ansari, senior analyst at SICO Bank, told Zawya by email.
The company’s Q1 2019 revenue stood at 1.76 billion dirhams, compared to 1.47 billion dirhams in Q1 2018, a 19.73 percent increase.
Ansari attributed the rise in sales to higher revenue from the property development segment and the hospitality segment.
Ansari added that the company has seen a “robust result at the core level,” and that off-plan sales have been healthy since the start of 2019. Development sales were up 49 percent year-on-year and totaled 1 billion dirhams in Q1 2019, Aldar said in a press release.
The company’s shares were trading 2.4 percent higher at close on Tuesday at 1.71 dirhams.
“We remain positive on the name given decent upside (19 percent) and attractive dividend yield (9 percent for FY19),” SICO’s Ansari said.
(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Michael Fahy)
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© ZAWYA 2019
