Dubai Investments secures near 60 pct of sought $326.7 mln loan

DUBAI, (Reuters) – Dubai Investments has secured 700 million dirhams ($190.6 million) of a 1.2 billion dirham loan it wants to raise, but will post a weaker third-quarter profit because of provisions, the firm’s chief executive said on Tuesday.

The company, in which sovereign fund Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD)owns an 11.5-percent stake, sees third-quarter profit of 30 million dirhams, compared to a profit of 213.61 million dirhams a year-ago, chief executive Khalid Bin Kalban told reporters at a press conference.

Profit for the nine-months to Sept. 30 should be around 270 million dirhams, he said.

“The third quarter will be worse than Q1 and Q2. We have to take provisions for clients in Libya and Syria who have not paid due to the unrest,” he said.

The company, which has interests in several sectors including property and manufacturing, has now secured 700 million dirhams of the 1.2 billion dirham loan. It had only raised quarter of this total by July, having said in April it expected the loan to be finalised by May.

This was to be used to expand Emirates Float Glass, a manufacturing unit in Abu Dhabi and to complete the last phase of its industrial development Dubai Investment Park.

Kalban said the company is eyeing three acquisitions in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, valued at 250 million dirhams, as it looks to increase its footprint outside the Gulf Arab region.

He said Dubai Investments is also looking at acquisition or start-up opportunities in India and will try revive a stalled project in Libya it values at 80 million euros.

Kalban said Dubai Investments would increase the capital of its private equity unit Masharie to 1 billion dirhams from 600 million, pending shareholder approval.

It had planned to sell a 30-percent stake in the unit through an initial public offering in mid-2011, but this has been postponed because of depressed market conditions.