UAE-based National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) has registered a net profit of Dh319.3 million ($87  million) for the first nine months of the year, up 10 per cent over the last year's figures of Dh290.4 million ($79 million).

A leading regional district cooling utility company, Tabreed said the solid growth was mainly driven by the acquisition in March of S&T Cool, a district cooling provider on Reem Island in Abu Dhabi, as well as income in May from a partial sale of Saudi Tabreed following the investment by the IDB Infrastructure Fund II, reducing Tabreed's total shareholding in Saudi Tabreed from 25 to 20 per cent.

Announcing the consolidated financial results for the period up to September 30, Tabreed said the group revenue increased by 4 per cent to Dh1.09 billion from last year's figures of Dh1.05 billion, while its ebitda increased by 9 per cent to Dh505.9 million over Dh464.6 million.

Tabreed’s latest financial results follow its announcement last month that it successfully issued a $500 million fixed rate senior unsecured US dollar denominated RegS sukuk with a seven-year tenor.

The issue was 50 per cent oversubscribed and saw strong institutional demand both locally and in Asia and Europe. The sukuk was competitively priced, with a profit rate of 5.5 per cent, underpinned by Moody’s Baa3 and Fitch’s BBB credit ratings, assigned to Tabreed and to the sukuk itself, said the company in its statement.

Tabreed also arranged new bank facilities of up to Dh1.5 billion which, along with the sukuk, will be used to refinance Dh2.8 billion of current corporate debt and provide a committed revolving credit facility which is available to fund the business as needed, it added.

On the solid performance, Chairman Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi said: "We are pleased to report another strong set of both financial and operational results, with a net income increasing 10 per cent, reflecting our solid group performance. We also saw stable growth in our connected capacity, adding over 29,000 of new customer connections in the first nine months of this year."

"Additionally, in Q3 we received new investment grade ratings from Moody’s and Fitch, which is a strong endorsement of Tabreed’s strong utility business model," he added.

CEO Jasim Husain Thabet said: "These solid results follow our successful raising of a 500 million dollar sukuk, which was 50 per cent oversubscribed, receiving strong institutional demand both locally and in Asia and Europe."

"This, coupled with another quarter of consistently strong results, confirms Tabreed’s position as a leader in district cooling in the region," remarked Thabet.

Tabreed is a partner of choice for organizations across the GCC in providing environmentally friendly district cooling solutions that support the region’s energy sustainability, he added.-TradeArabia News Service