Abu Dhabi, UAE, 14 November 2018: National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed), the UAE-based regional District Cooling utility company, released its consolidated financial results for the first nine months of 2018, through a Press communiqué. Tabreed reported a 10% increase in net profit to AED 319.3 million for the year up to 30 September, compared with the same period in 2017, the communiqué said.

According to Tabreed, the rise in profit was driven by the acquisition, in March, of S&T Cool, a District Cooling provider on Reem Island, in Abu Dhabi, as well as income, in May, from a partial sale of Saudi Tabreed, following the investment by the IDB Infrastructure Fund II, reducing Tabreed’s total shareholding in Saudi Tabreed from 25% to 20%.

Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, Chairman, Tabreed

Tabreed’s latest financial results follow its announcement last month that it successfully issued a USD 500 million (AED 1.8 billion) fixed rate senior unsecured US dollar denominated RegS sukuk with a seven-year tenure, the communiqué said. The issue was 50% oversubscribed and saw strong institutional demand, both locally and in Asia and Europe, the communiqué further said. The sukuk was competitively priced, with a profit rate of 5.5%, underpinned by Moody’s Baa3 and Fitch’s BBB credit ratings, assigned to Tabreed and to the sukuk itself, the communiqué also said. Tabreed arranged new bank facilities of up to AED 1.5 billion, which, along with the sukuk, will be used to refinance AED 2.8 billion of current corporate debt and provide a committed revolving credit facility, which is available to fund the business, as needed, the communiqué added.

Jasim Husain Thabet, CEO, Tabreed

Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, Chairman, Tabreed, commented: “We are pleased to report another strong set of both financial and operational results, with a net income increasing 10%, reflecting our solid group performance. We also saw stable growth in our connected capacity, adding over 29,000 of new customer connections in the first nine months of this year. Additionally, in Q3 we received new investment grade ratings from Moody’s and Fitch, which is a strong endorsement of Tabreed’s strong utility business model.”

Jasim Husain Thabet, Chief Executive Officer, Tabreed, added: “These solid results follow our successful raising of a 500 million dollar sukuk, which was 50% oversubscribed, receiving strong institutional demand, both locally and in Asia and Europe. This, coupled with another quarter of consistently strong results, confirms Tabreed’s position as a leader in District Cooling in the region.”