RABAT, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Addoha, Morocco’s biggest property developer by market value, posted a 17.9 percent annual rise in its first-half net profit on Friday thanks to an increase in sales.
It joined other property developers in posting some of the best results for the period among companies listed on the Casablanca bourse.
In a published statement, Addoha said it had made 567 million dirhams ($65.7 million) consolidated net profit in the six months to end-June, on turnover up 9.8 percent to 3.1 billion dirhams.
Shares in the company were down 1.7 percent at 1342 GMT.
The firm sold about 12,200 low-income housing units and about 1,000 housing units for high-end customers during the first half of 2012. That compared with the sale of 9,100 mostly low-income housing units in the first half of 2011.
Property developers in the north African country have in recent years put more focus on low-income housing developments. Authorities have offered incentives, covering up to 25 percent of production costs, in an attempt to stop the spread of slums and address a housing shortage estimated at 850,000 units.
The debt crisis in the euro zone has also hit demand for up-market housing development projects.
Addoha has established itself as a leader in social housing projects. Last year, it signed a government contract to build 37,000 housing units for army personnel, angering some of its rivals who criticised the absence of a tender process.
Despite macroeconomic hardships and a chronic shortage in domestic liquidity that impacted mortgage loans’ growth, property developers in Morocco posted strong profit growth during the first half, beating top players in the banking and cement industries.
Addoha’s biggest listed rival Alliances posted a 48 percent rise in net profit at 388 million dirhams for a 14 percent increase in turnover to 1.68 billion dirhams. Another rival, Compagnie Generale Immobiliere, saw its net profit rise 17 percent during the first half for a 2 percent rise in sales.
($1 = 8.6301 Moroccan dirhams) (Reporting By Souhail Karam; Editing by Pravin Char)
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