National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) reported on Thursday a rise net profit for the first quarter (Q1) of 2019.

Tabreed’s Q1 2019 net profit amounted to 80.03 million United Arab Emirates dirhams ($21.79 million), compared to 77.7 million dirhams in Q1 2018, translating into a 3 percent increase.

The company’s revenue rose by 8.14 percent on Thursday to 296.77 million dirhams in Q1 2019 from 274.42 million dirhams in Q1 2018.

Michel Said, a research analyst at Cairo-based CI Capital, told Zawya by email that Tabreed added 2,950 refrigeration tons (RT) during the quarter to its capacity during the first quarter, out of a total of 26,000 RT set to be connected in 2019.

Tabreed has 74 district cooling plants across the GCC, providing over 1.1 million RT of cooling capacity for customers in five countries.

“We expect Tabreed to continue delivering strong results over 2019, on the back of the capacity additions, as well as the increase in the UAE’s 2018 CPI (consumer price index) to close to 3 percent, from the 2 percent recorded in 2017, positively impacting revenue from the high margin capacity charge,” Said added.

In a press release following the earnings announcement, Tabreed said that its connected capacity across the GCC increased to 1,134,329 RT.

The press release added that Tabreed had signed a 30-year concession for a new plant at Andhra Pradesh Capital City in India, which the company said was a significant step in penetrating “one of the world’s biggest and fastest-growing markets”.

The company’s shares closed flat at 1.6 dirhams on Thursday and have dropped 7.51 percent so far since the start of 2019.

“With the results coming in line with the market’s expectations, confirming the company’s growth story and deleveraging, share price remained flattish with investors awaiting for further announcement related to new capacity additions in India, Egypt or Turkey, as the UAE market is currently saturated,” Said said.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Michael Fahy)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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