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Dubai’s Tamweel Q1 profit rises five-fold

Tamweel made 50.47 million dirhams ($13.74 million) in the three months to March 31, compared with 10.19 million dirhams in the year-earlier period, it said in a statement on the Dubai bourse Web site.

Income from Islamic financing and investing assets rose 90 percent to 45.84 million dirhams in the quarter, the company said. Total assets rose 94 percent to 3 billion dirhams.

Tamweel booked a record 894 million dirhams in financed properties in the quarter, while its accumulated financing assets under service stood at 5.98 billion dirhams, Tamweel Chief Executive Adel al-Shirawi said in the statement.

By comparison, Tamweel’s main competitor, Amlak Finance AMLK.DU, had posted a 35.4 drop in first-quarter profit to 24 million dirhams, its second-smallest quarterly profit in two years, on higher costs and delays in property projects that limited revenue growth.

Shares of Tamweel are down about 10 percent this year, while Amlak’s shares have fallen about 45 percent, making it the worst-performing stock in Dubai.

Tamweel said in April it would allow foreigners to own up to 40 percent of its shares, up from 21 percent, in order to broaden its investor base.

The company also said it planned to sell Islamic bonds worth $800 million, including $300 million that could be convertible into shares of the firm, to finance expansion in the UAE and regionally.

Tamweel’s 550 million dirham initial public offering in 2006 was almost 500 times oversubscribed.

The public owns 55 percent of Tamweel, whose other major shareholders include Dubai Islamic Bank DISB.DU an Dubai government investment agency Istithmar.