–Amlak Finance PJSC, the largest real estate financier in the Middle East by total assets, announced today its financial results for the year ending on 31 December 2008, pursuant to the clearance from the Central Bank of UAE. 

The company’s 2008 net profit was recorded at AED 241 million, compared to AED 301 million in 2007. Amlak Finance made a loss of AED 204 million in its Fourth Quarter of 2008 mainly as a result of a drop in revenues from the previous quarters as well as the sharp fall in income from real estate investment activities, lower new mortgage originations, significant increase in funding costs, higher general provisions on mortgage portfolio and other investments.

H.E. Nasser Bin Hassan Al-Shaikh, Director-General of Dubai Department of Finance and Chairman of Amlak Finance PJSC, announced that Amlak’s total assets as at the end of December 2008 stood at AED 15.8 billion, a growth of 67 per cent compared to AED 9.5 billion in 2007.

 Meanwhile, the company’s financing portfolio increased from AED 6.2 billion to AED 10 billion during 2008 with a further AED2.8 billion of financing commitments extended to customers as at end of 2008. Amlak’s real estate investments portfolio stood at AED AED6bn as at the year end.

“While the last quarter of the year has been a very challenging period for the entire industry due to the challenging global financial crisis; however, the first nine months of 2008 were extremely positive for our UAE operation, as we successfully managed not only to meet our financial goals but also surpass them by a big margin,” said Al-Shaikh.

He added: “Despite the ongoing economic instability, we are always optimistic and believe in the efforts and strategic plans introduced by the Dubai and Federal Governments to boost the real estate financing sector and guide us to a corrective path in these challenging economic times. I believe the formation of the Ministerial Committee by the Federal Government to identify opportunities and assess the necessary measures to revitalize the real estate market, with focus on the real estate financing sector, was a decision taken at the right moment and will drive growth once again to this vital sector in our market.”Commenting on the company’s financial results for 2008, Arif Alharmi, Chief Executive Officer, Amlak Finance PJSC, said: “Despite the financial turmoil that we all experienced in the latter part of 2008, we have managed to show good operational performance. I believe 2009 is going to be a challenging year given the current economic situation on the global and regional levels; however, we have been working toward revising our operational strategies to meet our customers’ and other stakeholders’ expectations.”

Alharmi added, “We are determined to continually provide our customers and stakeholders with the support necessary to sustain and stabilize the real estate sector in the UAE in 2009 and beyond. I am confident that the long term outlook for the real estate financing sector is very positive as the real estate market is maturing with a buoyant secondary mortgage market developing. We have been prudent with our provisioning and taken solid steps to optimize our strategy on operational costs, liquidity management and international operations in managing our assets to the tune of AED 15 billion. We also exerted sharp focus on rationalizing our real estate investment portfolio where necessary. Although new financing is likely to remain tight over the next few months, we are adamant on service quality and support to our existing customers.”     

Amlak was also endowed with a number of esteemed industry awards such as the ‘Liquid Real Estate Awards’ by Euromoney for the Best Financial Services Company in the UAE and the CEO of the year award for 2008. In its constant endeavour in improving customer service, Amlak Finance also emerged as the first real estate financing institution in the UAE to be awarded the prestigious ISO 9001-2000 certification by Lloyds, the leading certification body which is recognized by the accreditation councils worldwide.