Dubai: The opening of 11 new plants, including eight serving the Dubai Metro Green Line, boosted profits last year at the National Central Cooling Company, also known as Tabreed.
The Dubai-listed utilities firm said net income advanced to Dh182.7 million ($50 million) from Dh136.8 million in 2010, an increase of 34 per cent. The company's stock price fell 0.55 per cent to 54 fils per share at the close yesterday on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM).
Tabreed's core business involves chilling water at its plants, which is in turn used to cool buildings and other infrastructure projects. The 11 new plants increased the firm's total connected capacity in the UAE to 555,181 refrigeration tonnes.
"Tabreed's performance was driven by its core chilled water division, which aggressively fuelled the company's bottom line," said Marwan Shurrab, vice-president and chief trader at Gulfmena Investments.
Sustained rally
"The stock saw some profit taking but that is not a surprise given the market has been on a sustained rally; the DFM was up six per cent for the month of January," he added.
Tabreed's chilled water division saw revenues increase 25 per cent to Dh943.8 million while gross profit rose 27 per cent to Dh406 million.
Group revenue for the year increased by 9 per cent to Dh1.1 billion.
"Our full year performance, in particular our revenue growth and significantly increased profitability, demonstrates the success of our strategy of focusing on the chilled water business, improving operational efficiencies and applying stricter cost discipline across the business," said Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Tab-reed's chairman, in a statement to the Dubai Financial Market.
In April last year, Tabreed completed its recapitalisation programme, which enabled it to settle its 2006 Sukuk in full upon maturity.
The programme involved refinancing Dh2.63 billion of debt and receiving Dh3.1 billion of long-term capital from Mubadala Development in return for Mubadala upping its stake in Tabreed.
