Emaar Malls profit climbs by 23%

The Dubai Mall kept the crown of the world's most-visited shopping and leisure destination with 80 million annual visitors in 2015 and boosted the net profit of its owner Emaar Malls by 23 per cent to Dh1.66 billion.

Visitors' arrival across all Emaar Malls assets crossed the 124 million mark in 2015, showing an increase of nine per cent compared to 2014, with The Dubai Mall contributing 64.5 per cent of the total visitors.

Emaar Malls has a gross leasable area of about six million sqft. This is being expanded with the ongoing addition of another one million sqft of built-up area at The Dubai Mall's Fashion Avenue. It will add another 150 international and local brands to the mall, adding more choices to visitors.

Continuing the healthy trend, Emaar Malls' occupancy levels increased to reach 96 per cent in 2015, while base rent renewal rates clocked an increase of 25 per cent for leases renewed during 2015.

Rental income witnessed a growth of 11 per cent to Dh2.99 billion, compared to Dh2.694 billion. The Dubai-listed company's share price lost 3.5 3.5 per cent on Sunday trading and closed at Dh2.49 with a turnover of 2.3 million shares.

"The retail sector is a key contributor to Dubai's GDP, and Emaar Malls assets mark a significant contribution to defining our city as must-visit destination for retail and leisure," Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Malls and Emaar Properties, said in a statement.

The Dubai Mall is the first choice for luxury retail for high net worth individuals from a wider catchment area of the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and China, thus serving over 2.5 billion people, Alabbar said, adding: "The robust performance of all our mall assets underline our commitment to sustained value creation for our stakeholders."

Net profit during the fourth quarter of 2015 was Dh435 million, which is 16 per cent higher than the third quarter of 2015 net profit of Dh376 million. Rental income during the fourth quarter of 2015 was Dh821 million, a 14 per cent increase over the the third quarter's Dh720 million.

Last year, Emaar Malls hosted the third edition of the Vogue Fashion Dubai Experience at The Dubai Mall. The two-day event saw a surge in visitor arrivals highlighted by the participation of the world's who's-who in the fashion industry.

• Business