Dubai’s DIFC Investments full-year profit declines 74%

DIFC Investments, controlled by Dubai’s tax-free business hub, posted a 74 per cent drop in profit.

Full-year profit net income fell to $31m from $118m a year ago, while revenue declined about 8 per cent to $186m.

The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) last year provided relief measures to support entities operating at the business hub to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. It included reduction in application fees, waiver of registration fees, and temporary relief from capital requirements.

The DIFC is home to the regional offices of banks including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley.

The number of new firms operating in the DIFC grew 20 per cent last year, taking the total to 2,919, it said on Tuesday.

2020 saw the highest number of registrations in #DIFC’s history. The number of new firms operating in DIFC is now 2,919, a 20% rise vs 2019. This represents big progress on DIFC delivering its 2024 strategy and vision to drive the future of finance: https://t.co/T6aGuKZTcX pic.twitter.com/ViLhGJJfK1

— DIFC (@DIFC) March 9, 2021