Emaar posts $350m second quarter loss

[Naveed Yaseen]

DUBAI: Property giant Emaar posted a second-quarter net loss of 1.3 billion dirhams (350 million dollars) as a slowdown in the American real estate market forced it to write off the entire value of its US unit John Laing Homes.

Emaar, partly owned by the Dubai government, swung into loss from a profit of 2.1 billion dirhams (572 million dollars) in the same period last year, it said in a press release on its website.

Emaar, developer of the world’s tallest tower, said it has decided to write down the complete book value of John Laing Homes, totalling 1.7 billion dirhams (470 million dollars) in the company’s accounts. JL Homes had filed for bankcruptcy earlier this year.

“Due to continued slowdown in the US real estate market and chapter 7 proceedings related to JL Homes, Emaar also decided to write down its complete book value of JL Homes,” it said.

The company’s second-quarter revenues slumped 65 per cent to 1.9 billion dirhams (518 million dollars) from the same period last year, while it swung to

a loss per share of of 21 fils (six cents) from earnings per share of 35 fils a year earlier.

“The first half of the year was extremely challenging as we steered the company through new market realities,” Chairman Mohamed Alabbar said in the statement.

“We succeeded in identifying the right opportunities that co-existed with the challenges and focused on project delivery.”

The company said second-quarter revenue, however, increased 25 per cent over first-quarter revenue as it had delivered and sold more units in its home market and in Turkey.

Income from rental and hospitality surged 180 per cent from a year earlier due to the opening of malls and hotels, Emaar said, adding that mall and hospitality projects created nearly 10,000 new jobs in Dubai.

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