Solidere announces its consolidated financial statements for 2008

The stand-alone net income figure represents an 18% increase compared to last year's results.

Liquidity:

The cash position of the Company at the end of 2008, amounted to around $292m. Solidere has always maintained a high level of liquidity to ensure financing most of its development projects and other operations.

A combination of several factors helped the company weather the world financial crisis, most importantly its policy to keep high levels of liquidity, the lack of leverage, and a strong asset base together with a sound cash placement policy, in addition to the solid fundamentals of the company and the project.

Property sales:

This positive result confirms the Company's ability to generate increasing profits, which result mainly from increasing land sales revenues as well as its property rental income.

The Company continues to attract investors, as new land sales agreements were signed in the previous six months for a total value of around $294m. In addition, negotiations are underway with other investors to sell other land sections in its inventory, that are expected to be finalized in the coming few months.

Total receivables amounting to $1,027bn consist of $296m as set out in the financial statements as of 31/12/2008, while the balance of $731m represents the Company's reserve of previously signed land sales contracts that are not yet recognized in these statements, and which are expected to be recognized over the coming three years after completing all necessary criteria for their recognition.

External Activities:

As for the Company's investments in projects outside of Beirut City Center through Solidere International (SI), these external operations were characterized by their high level of liquidity, reaching around $350m at the end of 2008 and with no leverage, which enabled SI to prevail over the global financial crisis, unlike many other regional and international Real Estate Companies, and especially SI's project in AlZorah - Emirate of Ajman (UAE), whereby it was decided to rephase the project in a way to take into account the new realities of the real estate market in the wake of the current economic situation.

The project has effectively started with the launching of the infrastructure works, whereby works are expected to accelerate with the tendering of the marine works in the second half of this year.

Al Zorah Project is also characterized with a high level of liquidity, reaching around $750m with no leverage, which will allow the company to carry on with the development of the project in the foreseeable future, without the need for any debt.

This confirms the healthy and solid situation of Solidere International, and its different projects in the region.

Dividends:

Accumulated consolidated profits amounted to $272.3m at the end of 2008. This includes profits from solidere's activities inside Lebanon and its share of profits from its affiliated companies.

In this regard, the company's Board of Directors is recommending to the General Meeting of Shareholders, which will convene on June 17th, 2009, to distribute a dividend equivalent to one US Dollar per share, similar to what was distributed in the two previous year.

Land and Real Estate development:

Solidere continues making progress towards the completion of the south section of the Beirut Souks project, which is expected to be officially inaugurated during the last quarter of 2009, knowing that many of the 250 retail shops will be progressively completing their preparations for the upcoming opening, starting June 2009. The North section of the Souks is currently under development by Solidere, which includes a cinema complex and an entertainment center which are expected to be completed within two years, and a department store to be completed within three years.

This commercial center will help the revitalization and repositioning of the Beirut city center. In addition, it is also expected to significantly improve the company's rental revenues, starting the year 2009.

Moreover, Solidere is in the process of launching several new real estate projects in different land use categories; residential, offices, hotels, and restaurants, in order to attract more investors and visitors to the city center. This will contribute to enhancing the tourism and commercial sectors and boost the company's revenues in the coming years.

On the other hand, Solidere continues the execution of infrastructure works for the reclaimed land, in order to complete the waterfront, the landscape of open areas and public domain, with a view to start of the development of projects in the area within the next two years.

Forecasts:

The above results and activities will allow the company to boost its revenues in the coming years, especially from land sales and rental income from its inventory of developed properties, which is expected to translate into an increase in profits for the year 2009.

It is also expected that all these factors will have a positive impact on the value of its land in the BCD area and its share price, knowing that the present market value of its shares is still below the true value of the company's assets and its ability to ensure growing future profits, given its strong financial and operational fundamentals.