Qatar-based United Development Company (UDC) said its revenues surged to QR1.3 billion ($356 million) in the third quarter, up seven per cent over the same period last year despite the overall challenges affecting the real estate market.
 
Announcing the results, UDC said its net profit too witnessed a jump hitting QR484 million. The net profit attributable to owners of the company stood at QR452 million while earnings per share amounted to QR1.28, it added.

Commenting on the results, UDC chairman Turki Al Khater said: "Sustainable performance was maintained over the past three months, as the company’s net profit increased by 37 per cent from that achieved at the end of the second quarter of 2016."

"The third quarter results reflect the company’s ambition for growth in different segments, and most notably The Pearl-Qatar, where our continued focus on project delivery of premium residential and outstanding commercial units enables the company to be well positioned as leader in the real estate development sector," he noted.

"Our commitment is to work hard and deploy appropriate strategies to ensure continuity of focus on providing added value to our shareholders, and to achieve satisfactory returns for them, where percentage of return on equity reached to 4 per cent as of September 30,"  explained Al Khater.

"In doing so, we continue to grow and achieve our strategic objectives set, and focus in improving our activities. We have our eyes equally set on new and innovative business ideas and opportunities in order to enhance the synergies with our operating companies," he added.

Throughout its 17 years of activity, UDC has played a key role in the development of Qatar through creation of successful partnerships and urban development projects, namely the flagship man-made Island, The Pearl-Qatar.

Owned and developed by UDC, The Pearl-Qatar is one of the largest mixed-use urban developments in GCC and State of Qatar.

Ibrahim Jassim Al Othman, UDC president and chief executive, said: "The stable financial results exhibited in the third quarter of 2016 is a result of our continuous commitment to provide an added value to our shareholders and customers while concentrating on our core business.

"The reported results for the nine months’ period ending September 30 were more than those budgeted," he added.

According to him, the company had signed a sale and purchase agreement for the sale of a residential tower plot in Viva Bahriya precinct, while the company continued to work on generating continuous revenue from its core operation.

"This is demonstrated in the company’s recorded remarkable growth in the core sources of income, noting the growth in the volume of residential units leased in the first nine months of 2016, which witnessed increase by two per cent compared to the same period last year," he added.-TradeArabia News Service