Egyptian real estate company Nasr City Housing and Development (MNHD) recently announced that its net profit before tax (NPBT) fell 10.2 percent to 46.7 million Egyptian pounds ($10.08 million) during the nine-months period, which ended March 31, 2002. During the corresponding period the previous year, MNHD posted LE52.0 million net profits.
The bottom line drop was largely attributed to a 22.7 percent fall in the company’s installment interest, which came at EP28.2 million, down from EP36.4 million reported in the nine-month period of 2001, according to the Nasr City Housing & Development unaudited results.
On the other hand, between July 2001 and March-end 2002, MNHD revenues amounted to EP36.6 million, constituting a 93 percent rise from the EP18.9 million reported the previous year.
Nasr City Housing was established in 1959 as a public sector land development company, with the chief responsibility of developing Cairo’s Nasr City district for the Egyptian government, by providing housing at a reasonable price to low-to-middle income groups. The company’s main activity is real estate development, including land acquisition, construction of residential, commercial and administrative housing units, including the installing of utilities, and the sale and lease of these units.
As part of Egypt’s privatization program, Nasr City Housing became a joint stock company in 1996, when the Holding Company for Building and Construction (HCBC) decided to sell 75 percent of the company’s equity, in what became Egypt’s first majority privatization completed through the stock exchange. Nasr City’s model of ownership is now a de-concentrated one, where the government remained the largest single shareholder, with 25 percent of the shares.
Following the privatization, the company began to engage in more profitable activities. Less than one third of the housing units that Nasr City currently develops are for the low-income market, and the company now deals mainly with high revenue projects, including luxury housing and diplomatic communities. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
