Reports maintaining operating margins despite current market challenges.

Drake & Scull International (DSI) reported Dh42 million in net profits for the first quarter of 2010, ending March 31, and revenues of Dh386 million for the same period.

Elaborating on this, Osama Hamdan, CFO, DSI said: “Q1 2009 net operating profit of Dh48 million before amortisation and interest income compares to Dh37 million net operating profit in Q1 2010, before amortisation. These results reflect a year-onyear 23% drop in operating profit. It is worth mentioning that in spite of the current market challenges, we have maintained our operating margins.”

“Our revenue was affected by the extension of project completion dates and the pre-construction activities of our new projects, in addition to the development of our operations in new territories, like Egypt, Oman and Saudi Arabia,” stated DSI CEO, Khaldoun Tabari. “We have seen a positive start to the year with over Dh1 billion worth of projects being added to our backlog, currently standing at Dh4 billion as of April 1. This will have a positive effect on our future revenue, which is expected to materialise in the second half of the year,” he added.

According to DSI, in another development, its board of directors also approved the start of the company’s operations in Syria, which is expected to come into effect by the end of the year.

“The companies we acquired in 2009 and early 2010, Passavant – Roediger, Drake & Scull Qatar and Drake & Scull Kuwait, are being integrated with our corporate operations, and will start generating revenue by the second half of the year. Our planned growth strategy will deliver the results expected in accordance with our overall 2010 financial targets,” said Tabari.