UAE's Tamweel Q4 net profit falls 27.3 pct

DUBAI: Dubai Islamic mortgage lender Tamweel's fourth-quarter net profit fell 27.3 percent, Reuters calculations show, as income from Islamic financing and investment portfolio dropped.

Tamweel, in which Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) took a majority stake in September, made a net profit of 8 million dirhams ($2.18 million) in the fourth quarter, according to Reuters calculations, compared with 11 million dirhams in the same period in 2009.

Reuters calculated the quarterly net profit from the company's previous financial statements.

Tamweel swung to a net profit of 26 million dirhams in 2010, compared with a loss of 54.4 million dirhams in 2009, it said in a statement on the Dubai bourse.

"Following a period of international and regional financial uncertainty, the global economic outlook has improved substantially, and we are witnessing signs of sustained recovery in the UAE, including in the property market," the firm's Chairman Abdulla Al Hamli said in the statement.

Income from Islamic financing and investing assets for 2010 fell to 553.2 million dirhams from 706.6 million dirhams in 2009, the firm said.

 The United Arab Emirates government said in November 2008 it intended to merge Tamweel with rival Islamic mortgage lender Amlak. Shares in the two have not traded since.

Dubai Islamic Bank raised its stake in September to 57.33 percent, effectively rendering Tamweel a subsidiary of DIB, in a move that was expected to help revive lending in Dubai's property market.