FINANCE
8 CONSTRUCTION WEEK 3 - 30 AUGUST, 2019 WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COMThe increasing number of
pilgrims visiting Makkah for
Umrah and Hajj has buoyed
the performance of hotel
real estate in the city, which
saw major launches such
as the 821-key Millennium
Makkah Al Naseem and the
486-key Copthorne Makkah
Al Naseem during H1 2019,
JLL said in its KSA Real
Estate Market Mid-Year
Review 2019 report.
An additional 6,500 and
17,400 keys are respectively
planned to be delivered
in H2 2019 and 2020 inMakkah real
estate H1 2019:
Hajj, Umrah pilgrim
numbers buoy
hotel marketAlba posts
130% net loss
in H1 2019
FINANCIAL RESULTSroom Jabal Omar Address
Makkah hotel.
During H1 2019, Makkah’s
gross leasable area in the
ofȌ ce real estate sector
reached 31.2ha with the
addition of the 6,900m
Mashareq 1 Southeast Asia
Foundation project.
Projects such as the 8ha
Naseem OfȌ ces within Tilal
Al Naseem Complex are
expected to increase the
availability of ofȌ ce space
in Makkah, even as some
projects initially planned for
2019 get delayed to 2020.Aluminium Bahrain is working on the Line 6 Expansion project that it says will make it the world’s largest smelter.Makkah, which will soon be
home to the world’s largest
Voco-branded hotel by IHG.
The 4,200-key Voco
hotel in Makkah is due to
commence operations in
early-2020.
Other hotel projects set
to open in the city include
the 4,400-room Maad
Hospitality Towers Phase
1 project; the 1,485-key
Copthorne Makkah Al Adl;
the 1,600-room Park Inn
by Radisson Al Hajla; the
680-key the Double Tree
by Hilton; and the 1,500-Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has
reported a 130% decline in profits for
the six months ending 30 June, 2019,
with the company recording a net
loss of $50.9m (BHD19.1m) against
corresponding numbers of $167.4m
(BHD62.9m) last year.
In a stock market filing, the company
attributed the decline in H1 2019
financials to the 21% year-on-year drop
in London Metal Exchange prices,
which fell from $2,259 per tonne (t) in
Q2 2018 to $1,793/t in Q2 2019.
Alba, which says it will become the
largest smelter in the world upon the
completion of its Line 6 Expansion
project, recorded a 4% drop in its
H1 2019 sales, which reached $1.1bn
(BHD448.6m), down from H1 2018’s
sales of $1.2bn (BHD465.2m).
During H1 2019, Alba’s assets grew
by 8% to reach $6.3bn (BHD2.4bn)
from $5.9bn (BHD2.2bn) as of 31December, 2018. Quarterly results at
the manufacturer remained similarly
mixed – Alba posted a net loss of $8.8m
(BHD3.3m) for Q2 2019, down 112%
from Q2 2018’s $77.4m (BHD29.1m).
Q2 2019 sales at the manufacturer
remained bullish, noting annualgrowth of 0.4% to reach $651.8m
(BHD245m) during the second quarter
of this year.
Alba, which is nearing the
completion of Line 6, said it achieved
eight million working-hours without
lost-time injuries on 8 July, 2019.RESEARCH