Dubai: The Dubai developer made marginal headway in trying to come up with a turnaround, with earnings before interest and tax at Dh5 million in the first three months of 2022. These are in the same range as last year, despite the one-off gains of Dh6.9 million from sale of assets and Dh2.2 million incurred as additional legal costs related to claims.
The company, currently under new management and trying for a drastic improvement in fortunes, ended Q1-2022 with a net loss of Dh12.5 million. This was brought on by finance costs of Dh17 million related to legacy debt. The “new management team continues to make progress on restructuring,” said a statement.
Accumulated losses are at Dh2.94 billion, which is 68.55 per cent of the share capital. Some of the losses pertain to questionable sell-offs by the previous management - Union Properties is taking legal recourse to recover some of the funds from such deals. (Recently, UP shareholders gave their approval to the company to continue with operations after accumulated losses crossed 50 per cent of issued capital as per UAE law.)
“Q1-2022 saw an improved quarter for Union Properties as we increased our revenues and drove cost efficiencies across the business," said Amer Khansaheb, member of Board and Managing Director. "We are also beginning to see the benefits of our business turnaround strategy and confident we will see further progress. In the meantime, our focus remains on addressing the company’s legacy issues head on, restructuring our debt and rebuilding shareholder trust.”
