NREC holds 47th Annual General Meeting

Firm to focus on debt reduction

KUWAIT CITY, May 10: The National Real Estate Company (NREC), one of the leading real estate companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), held its 47th Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders (AGM) today in Kuwait.

The Assembly approved all the items on the agenda including the Auditors’ Report and the Board of Directors’ Report on the company’s activities and financial position for the Financial Year ending on Dec 31, 2017. The shareholders also approved the Board of Directors recommendation to distribute 10% bonus shares for the financial year ending on Dec 31, 2017.

NREC Vice Chairman & CEO, Faisal Jamil Sultan Al-Essa, said: “2017 was a very active year on many fronts. We have crossed important milestones in our two largest projects, Grand Heights in Egypt and Reem Mall in Abu Dhabi - UAE. Both projects are progressing well and in line with expectations. We continued to steadily improve and strengthen our balance sheet, with good results to date.

Looking forward 2018 will be a year where NREC continues to focus on asset repositioning and debt reduction. With a stated objective of reducing leverage to below KD 100 Million. This objective along with the execution of our ongoing projects, is an essential first step towards restoring regular cash dividend payments to shareholders.” FY 2017 financial highlights:

Operating Revenue: KD38.5 million, up 13.6% from 2016

EBITDA: KD13.9 million, down 29% from 2016

Net Profit to shareholders: KD10.6 million, down 34.3% from 2016

Basic Earnings Per Share (EPS) of 11.29 fils

Total Assets of KD508.3 million; decreased by KD19.8 million from December 2016 Net debt to equity ratio: 0.6 Shareholders’ Equity of KD226.2 million; increased by KD16.3 million from December 2016

A photo from the event