The Dubai-based contractor made a net profit of AED55 million ($14.9 million) compared to profit of AED45 million in the same period last year, it said in a statement on its website. 

Analysts in a Reuters poll forecast average profit of AED52.8 million.

Drake said in May it expected to post a 25-to-30 percent rise in 2011 revenues as it focuses on growth markets like Saudi Arabia and India.

Revenue for the second quarter was AED739 million, up from AED412 million in the same time in 2010, it said.

The company’s backlog at the end of June was AED7.5 billion. 

Drake, whose biggest market is Saudi Arabia, has been rapidly expanding its operations outside Dubai, where house prices have plunged some 60 percent since their peaks in 2008 as a result of the financial crisis.

“Our primary focus for the second half of the year is controlling costs and efficiently allocating resources to optimize our expense base while ensuring growth in market share,” Chief Financial Officer Osama Hamdan said in a statement.

The firm’s shares ended 0.6 percent lower on the Dubai bourse on Thursday.

The results were announced after the markets closed.