Qatar’s Barwa Real Estate H1 Profit Slumps 21.1%

Qatar’s Barwa Real Estate, the country’s largest listed property developer, posted a 21.1 per cent drop in its net profit for the first half of 2012.

Barwa made a net profit of QR593.6 million ($163 million) for the opening six months of this year, versus QR752.5 million in the same period of 2011, it said in a bourse filing on Sunday. It did not provide other figures.

In May the company’s chief executive said it planned to launch an QR18 billion mixed-use Golf City project ahead of the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament.

Located within the planned coastal Lusail City north of the capital Doha, the project will include 4,000 residential units and a golf course, and is expected to be ready by 2018, group CEO Abdulla al-Subaie said. It will be financed through a combination of off-plan sales and subdevelopment.

Barwa is 45 per cent owned by Qatari Diar, the property arm of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. It has properties in France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and focuses on retail, office, hospitality and residential developments. Last year, Barwa laid off approximately 90 employees in a restructuring move.