DUBAI: United Arab Emirates producer Dana Gas said on Wednesday it had $434 million in cash as of end-September after completing the restructuring of its outstanding sukuk, or Islamic bonds, earlier this year.

Dana Gas reached a consensual restructuring agreement with its creditors in May after a protracted and complex legal dispute that began in 2017, when it halted payments on $700 million in sukuk saying the instruments had become unlawful in the UAE.

The company said in a statement on Wednesday that its cash position at the end of September stood at $434 million, down from $608 million at the end of 2017. It attributed the decrease to the completion of the restructuring, which involved a $235 million payment of principal, accrued profit, and other costs.

It also cited a dividend payment of $95 million made to shareholders in May.

The energy producer last month bought back $100 million of its sukuk, reducing the outstanding notes to $430 million. The buyback will save the company an annual $4 million in finance costs, it said.

Dana reported a net profit of $17 million in the third quarter of this year, against $102 million during the same period a year earlier.

However, net profit in the third quarter of last year included one-off income following a settlement in a court case with the Kurdistan Regional Government and interest on overdue receivables from that government.

Excluding those one-off items, net profit in the third quarter of this year rose to $17 million from $6 million a year ago, Dana said.

(Reporting by Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Sunil Nair) ((Davide.Barbuscia@thomsonreuters.com; +971522604297; Reuters Messaging: davide.barbuscia.reuters.com@reuters.net))