RIYADH: Red Sea Housing Services announced profits of SR58 million, up 3 percent over the previous year, for the three months ending March 31, said Majed Al-Kassabi, chairman of Red Sea.
Al-Kassabi said that the board of directors intends to make a recommendation to the general assembly to distribute SR3.5 dividends per share at the general assembly meeting, which is to be held in Jubail on April 25.
“When you consider the current economic uncertainty we are happy that our return on equity for 12 months ending March 31, 2009 over the 12 months ending March 31, 2008 has increased from 25 to 29.5 percent,” said Al-Kassabi.
“In the recent economic business environment, we took time to revisit our business strategy and was fully supported by the board of directors to maintain our activity at the same record level throughout 2008. We are pleased that over the last 12-month period we managed to achieve an asset turnover of 118.5 percent, up from 94.3 percent over the previous period leading to a return on assets of 22.1 percent, up from 16.9 percent,” said Don Sumner, Red Sea’s managing director.
Sumner added that with the business strategy and financial strategy working in our favor the current slowdown in world trade activity gives a great opportunity to take some time to organize the company’s operational strategy. “We see the balance of 2009 as a year to build a solid foundation to consolidate our current market share and build our human resources on Red Sea’s traditional values for future growth into the next decade,” he added.
Red Sea Housing Services, a public company listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange, was established in 1986 and is a world leader in the manufacture of modular buildings for the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It has supplied hundreds of projects in 57 countries around the world. With three modern manufacturing facilities — all ISO certified and strategically located in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Ghana —- Red Sea is capable of serving its diversified clients with quality products in a timely manner.