SEC’s Q4 net loss swells 25.6%
RIYADH: Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC), the Gulf’s largest utility by market value, said its net loss rose 25.6 percent in the fourth quarter, worse than analysts had anticipated. SEC made a net loss of SR510 million ($136 million) in the three months to end-December, up from a SR406 million loss a year earlier, the firm said in a statement posted on the bourse website. Analysts’ forecast of Saudi Electricity’s fourth quarter loss ranged between SR467 million and SR31 million.
Tawuniya’s Q4 net up 193%
RIYADH: Tawuniya, Saudi Arabia’s leading insurer, posted a 193 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, but missed its own forecast after floods that hit Jeddah in December. Tawuniya made SR101.5 million ($27.1 million) in the three months to end-December, up from SR34.6 million a year earlier, it said in a statement on the bourse website. The company’s Chief Executive Ali Al-Subaihin said in October that he expected earnings in the fourth quarter to at least match the SR125.6 million it made in the third quarter of 2009.
SR2.25 billion in Al-Rajhi dividend
RIYADH: Al-Rajhi Bank’s board of directors on Monday proposed the payment of SR2.25 billion in dividends to shareholders for profits accrued in the second half of 2009. The amount is 20 percent more than dividends paid for the first half of he year. The payment will be at the rate of SR1.5 per share after deducting zakat. This brings the bank’s total dividends for 2009 to SR4.125 billion.
Riyad Bank to pay SR0.7 a share
RIYADH: Riyad Bank’s board proposed to issue a dividend of SR0.70 per share for the second-half of 2009, the bank said in a bourse statement on Monday. Riyad Bank made SR912 million in the three months to end-December, up 72.4 percent from the period a year earlier.
EFG Hermes sells Bank Audi stake
CAIRO: Middle East investment bank EFG Hermes said Monday it sold its entire stake in Lebanon’s Bank Audi for $913.4 million, significantly boosting its liquidity. The Cairo-based investment firm said it sold its 7.5 million common shares and 2.5 million global depository receipts in the bank, Lebanon’s largest by assets, to a group of investors. It did not identify the buyers.
Ezdan to build Doha towers
DUBAI: Ezdan Real Estate, Qatar’s biggest developer by market value, on Monday said it inked a deal to develop Doha’s $687.2 million Asia Towers project. Ezdan said a partnership agreement with Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance Co. and Al Sarri Trading Co. will be signed on Wednesday. The Asia Towers project is one of the largest planned in the Qatari capital this year, Ezdan said in a statement.
— Compiled by Arab News