Dubai’s Emaar Malls Q1 net profit rises 22%

Dubai’s Emaar Malls, a unit of Emaar Properties, reported a 22 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit on Tuesday as its rental income grew.

Emaar Malls made a net profit of Dhs 529m ($144.03m) in the three months to March 31, up from Dhs 433m in the same period a year earlier, it said in a statement.

EFG Hermes forecast Emaar Malls would make a quarterly net profit of Dhs 451.9m.

Emaar Malls’ quarterly rental income was Dhs 833m, up 14 per cent year-on-year.

Its malls achieved 96 per cent occupancy and attracted about 31 million visitors in the first three months of 2016, which were both similar levels to a year earlier, the company said without elaborating.

Parent firm Emaar Properties owns about 85 per cent of Emaar Malls, having floated the remainder in 2014. At the time, the Dhs 5.8bn share sale was the Gulf’s largest since 2008.