Mashreq Q4 net falls; fee, interest income down

Mashreq bank, Dubai’s second-largest lender by market value, saw its quarterly net profit fall by nearly 59% as interest and fee income decreased in the year. The lender made a net profit of 64mn dirhams ($17.4mn) in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to Reuters calculations, compared to 155.6mn dirhams a year earlier. Full-year net profit came in at 820mn dirhams, the bank said in a statement, compared to 803mn dirhams in 2010. Mashreq made impairments worth 1.2bn dirhams in 2011, a 32% fall from 2010, the statement said. “Net interest income and income from Islamic products net of distribution to depositors for the year 2011 ... was down 15.1%, while net fee, commission and other income ... was down 8.0%,” it said.

TabreedUAE utility firm Tabreed’s fourth-quarter net profit more than doubled, backed by strong performance at its core chilled water business and an increase in total capacity. Dubai-listed Tabreed, which received funding from state-owned fund Mubadala to restructure debt last year, saw quarterly profit rise to 52.9mn dirhams ($14.40mn) from 21.1mn dirhams year-ago, according to Reuters calculations. Reuters calculated the fourth quarter profit from previous financial statements. The company reported a net profit of 129.8mn dirhams for the nine-month period ending September 30, 2011. Tabreed’s full-year net profit rose 34% to 182.7mn dirhams, the company said. Group revenues rose 9% to 1.1bn dirhams, with its main chilled water division accounting for 943.8mn dirhams of the overall revenues. “Our strategy will remain constant in the year ahead as we complete our build-out program and build upon the notable achievements of 2011,” Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Tabreed’s chairman, said in the statement. The company said it added 11 plants during 2011 and an additional 8% in overall capacity.

Waha CapitalWaha Capital, an Abu Dhabi-listed investment firm, said its fourth-quarter net profit fell 46%, with the company citing a one-time gain in its year-ago results for the drop. Waha, which is involved in real estate and leasing for the oil and aviation sectors, earned a net profit of 92.95mn dirhams ($25.31mn)in the last quarter of 2011, compared with 172.35mn dirhams in the same period last year, it said in a bourse statement yesterday. Waha said its year-ago results included a gain from its acquisition of a stake in aircraft leasing firm AerCap. It did not provide a value for the gain. Waha bought the stake in October 2010. The firm’s full year net profit was 155.31mn dirhams compared with 249mn dirhams in 2010, it said without giving full details for the fourth quarter. Total assets grew 11% to 4.23bn ending December 2011.