Abu Dhabi: Drake and Scull International’s (DSI) net profit during the first quarter of 2015 fell to Dh27.8 million, marking a 39 per cent plunge from the Dh45.6 million recorded in the same period last year, the company reported on Thursday.
Revenues also fell to Dh1.1 billion in the first quarter of the year, down from Dh1.25 billion in the same three months last year.
In a statement issued on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), Khaldoun Tabari, chief executive officer and vice-chairman of DSI, said the company’s results reflect “a sense of cautious progress in our regional industry”.
“Despite volatile market conditions and the liquidity crunch in our industry, we managed to remain profitable. We are still dealing with some major operations setbacks in KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia], which will continue to have a far-reaching effect on our performance in 2015,” he said.
DSI was not available for further comments when contacted by Gulf News.
The company’s financial statement marks yet another quarter of falling net profits, as the first-quarter 2014 figure of Dh45.6 million was a drop from the Dh62.7 million recorded in the first quarter of 2013.
Mohammad Yasin, managing director of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi Securities, said that DSI needed to inform shareholders about how the company plans to turn its finances around, especially since net profits have been falling for the past few quarters.
“We see the company always announcing new contracts, which is good for them, but we don’t see that reflected into higher net profits. Whether it is issues of cash flow collection or of costing of these projects, the shareholders of Drake and Scull have been disappointed with the performance of the company for the past [few] months,” he said.
Asked if oil prices played a part in the company’s declining profits, Yasin said that he did not think the decline was due to oil prices, as projects tend to take “12-24 months”, and thus, oil prices could only reflect on future earnings.
