Standard & Poor’s, the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data, has assigned Tabreed – the Middle East’s district cooling pioneer - a BBB-minus, foreign and local currency, long-term corporate credit rating, with a stable outlook.
Tabreed is the first regional district cooling company to get a Standard & Poor’s ranking.
“Once again Tabreed has a regional industry first to its credit,” said Karl Marietta, Chief Financial Officer of the company. “Our strong financials, new contract wins, presence in all GCC markets and excellent future prospects ensure that Tabreed will maintain its double-digit growth rate. “Tabreed investors can look forward to many important contract announcements in the near future.”
The agency has predicted a stable outlook for the world’s largest district cooling company which reflects Standard & Poor's expectation that Tabreed will continue to maintain its UAE market leading position and successfully expand its business domestically and to other markets.
The S&P report also states that Tabreed’s cooling capacity is likely to more than quadruple by 2010 and cooling plants in operation are forecast to more than double by 2008 from 17, currently.
Tabreed recently announced its 2006 first quarter results, which saw the company’s revenues up more than 36 per cent from last year.
The company posted gross profit of AED 52.3 million, up from AED 41 million in 2005, while net profit increased to 17.9 million compared to 17.1 million. At the end of March 31, the company's total assets grew to AED 2.7 billion from 2.6 billion on December 31, 2005.
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
