KIPCO announces 54% increase in nine months net profits

An increase of 54% on the KD54.26m ($194.31m) of 'normalized' profit, or 48.22 fils ($17.27 cents) per share, for the same period last year.

The 'normalized' profit figure for the first nine months of 2007 excludes the proceeds and other financial benefits taken by the consolidated KIPCO group from the sale of a controlling stake in Wataniya Telecom and other sales of stakes made by associates and subsidiaries of KIPCO during the equivalent period last year.

KIPCO's total revenues for the first nine months of 2008 also increased by 65.89% compared to the 'normalized' nine months revenues of 2007, to KD382.07m ($1.43bn) from KD230.31m ($824.74m).

As a result, KIPCO's total assets increased 4.56%to KD5.3bn ($19.90bn) from KD4.3bn ($15.75bn).

Mr Faisal Al Ayyar, KIPCO's Vice Chairman, said the year-on-year increase in profits was due to continued strong performances from KIPCO's core operating companies:

"Despite turbulence in the world's financial markets, our core operating companies have continued to deliver the kind of performances we have come to expect from them. These third quarter results also show that our portfolio of holdings across a variety of dynamic sectors has the potential to resist the global market fluctuations we have seen in the last few months."

KIPCO's 2008 third quarter (three months ended September 30, 2008) net profit was up 45.22% to KD25.05m ($94.07m) from KD17.25m ($61.77m) of 'normalized' profit in the same period of 2007, a rise of KD7.80m ($29.29m); third quarter earnings per share were up 45.75% to 22.46 fils ($8.43cents) from 15.41 fils ($5.52 cents) in the 2007 third quarter; and 2008 third quarter revenues increased 44.29% to KD120.21m ($451.41m) from KD83.31m ($298.33m) of 'normalized' revenue for the same period in 2007, up KD36.90m ($138.57m).