Drake & Scull International (DSI), a regional market leader in the integrated design, engineering and construction sector, said it has registered a 77 per cent year-on-year net margin growth during the third quarter.

The Dubai-based company said its quarterly revenue almost doubled from Dh432 million ($117.6 million) last year to Dh847 million ($230.5 million), while its net income rose to Dh60 million from Dh34 million  last year.

Commenting on the results on Sunday, CEO Khaldoun Tabari said these figures indicate a year-on-year increase of 96 per cent in revenues and 77 per cent in net income. The earnings per share were Dh0.03, compared with Dh0.02 recorded last year.

'On a quarterly basis, the revenue and net income recorded increases of 15 and 10 per cent respectively when compared to last quarter while the total projects awards announced year to date reached Dh3.6 billion,' he noted.

Tabari pointed out that the firm's revenues for first nine months totalling Dh2.23 billion have already exceeded the total revenues of fiscal 2010 which reached Dh1.85 billion.

'This quarter earnings reflect our operating capability, portfolio strength and financial flexibility. We expect to maintain our growth during quarter four,' he remarked.

'This sustained performance is an outcome of our strong team dynamics and the synergy with our acquired businesses that are currently under integration with the DSI platform driving continual replenishment of the existing backlog to support future earnings,' he added.

Tabari said, “We are satisfied with DSI’s solid performance across all our subsidiaries in the third quarter despite a challenging macro environment. We have managed to grow our quarterly revenues and profits (year-on-year) vis -a- vis 2010 by approximately two folds.'

Chief financial officer Osama Hamdan said the third quarter was understandably a slow one with the seasonal effects of both summer and Ramadan which to an extent constrained productivity, affected the backlog growth and rendered the bottom line margins slightly lower compared to last quarter.

'Additionally, we expect a pickup in our backlog in the fourth quarter as we anticipate new project announcements .Strategic cost reduction remains a key management focus and our increasing operating profit margin is a clear evidence of our constant efforts to control costs and optimize productivity.' he added.-TradeArabia News Service