WahaDUBAI: Waha Capital posted a 10.9 percent drop in first-quarter profit as a restructuring of its leasing business and a consolidation of investments in its aviation business in the fourth-quarter cut into profit.

The Abu Dhabi-listed firm on Monday said net profit fell to 29.77 million dirhams ($8.11 million) in the first quarter, as compared with 33.42 million dirhams in the comparable period one-year earlier.

Waha said its operating income, which includes share of profits from investment in equity accounted investees, dropped to 83.4 million dirhams from 112.2 million dirhams in the first quarter of last year due to the restructuring and consolidation of investments.

The company said it suffered a loss of 60.3 million dirhams in the quarter from investments in equity accounted investees.

Waha, which is involved in real estate and leasing for the oil and aviation sectors including deals for military planes for the UAE Armed Forces, plans to issue 500 million dirhams ($136.1 million) of convertible notes by the end of June.

The notes will be converted into shares within three years of the issue. Conversion price and coupon rates have yet to be approved by the board of directors, the company said in a statement to the bourse.

In March, Waha’s chief financial officer said the company is eyeing investments in the regional maritime sector in 2011.

Copyright Reuters, 2011

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