Investment Corporation of Dubai posts 83% profit rise

Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) posted an 83.5 per cent increase in profit during the first half of last year compared with the year-earlier period, the sovereign wealth fund said.

Net profit attributable to the equity holders of ICD rose to Dh12.08 billion in the six months ended June 30 compared with Dh6.58bn in the year-earlier period, the fund said in a statement to Nasdaq Dubai.

ICD did not give a reason for the profit increase.

Revenue increased by nearly 14 per cent to Dh98bn in the first half of last year from Dh86bn in the year-earlier period. Total assets grew 5.8 per cent to Dh643.7bn from Dh608.3bn in the comparable period the previous year.

ICD has strategic stakes in many of the companies regarded as critical to the emirate's economic strategy, such as Emirates aviation group, Emirates NBD and Emaar Properties.

“Dubai’s economy should hold up relatively well over the next couple of years,” said Jason Tuvey, an emerging markets economist at the London-based consultancy Capital Economics. “Admittedly, the emirate is dependent on business from the rest of the Gulf, so it is indirectly exposed to low oil prices. But crucially, we don’t expect activity in the other Gulf economies to collapse.

“Moreover, Dubai should benefit from the onset of preparations for the World Expo in 2020.”

ICD said last month that it had purchased the W Hotel in Washington, a majority holding in the Mandarin Oriental in New York and a minority stake in the One&Only resort in Cape Town.

Last year, ICD clinched a “transformational” deal in the international hotels business when it bought a big stake in Kerzner International, the global luxury hotels management group, in which the Dubai World subsidiary Istithmar World already had a 25 per cent holding.

ICD owns outright the Atlantis resort on the Palm Jumeirah, and it has a controlling interest in the company that manages the One&Only and Mazagan resort chains.

In February, South Korean media reported that ICD had acquired a controlling stake in the troubled South Korean construction firm Ssangyong Engineering & Construction for 200bn Korean won (Dh671m).

dalsaadi@thenational.ae

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