UAE's district cooling giant Tabreed sees minimal COVID-19 impact on business

Dubai: Peak summer and many still working and studying from added heft to district cooling company Tabreed’s third quarter 2020 revenues, which totaled Dh547.93 million against Dh455.98 million a year ago.

For the first nine months, revenues weighed in with Dh1.25 billion, a slight improvement on the Dh1.12 billion from 2019’s total. That was enough to turn in a Dh384.37 million profit against Dh335.81 million.

Bader Al Lamki, CEO, said: “Tabreed remains well positioned from an operational and capital perspective despite the uncertainties and challenges brought on by this year’s events. In turn, we are making progress on executing on our long-term plans, including investing in infrastructure, and deploying capital in attractive long-term opportunities.”

Timely buy

The numbers have also received a boost from the 80 per cent stake it picked up in Downtown District Cooling from Emaar in April last. Last month, Tabreed raised $500 million (Dh1.8 billion) from a seven-year, 2.5 per cent coupon bond issuance. The issuance was oversubscribed nearly five times.

“The Group is continuously monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on the business, operations and its finances, particularly in the usage of chilled water consumption, which affects the consumption revenue,” Tabreed noted in a statement. “However, due to the nature of the services the Group provides, there is no direct impact on the business.”