details of the size capital hike "in coming weeks", Chairman Anas Sefrioui told reporters at the company's headquarters on the outskirts of Casablanca. "We have announced a goal of 120,000 homes between 2010 and 2015 ... and that's why we plan this capital increase," Sefrioui said.Addoha is a top player in the government's drive to eradicate slums and meet a big shortfall in affordable homes. Its shares helped power the Casablanca bourse to a record high until the global financial crisis hit and investors worried whether it would find buyers for its high-income homes. The company said at the time that it was refocusing on low-income housing. Addoha's shares tumbled on Wednesday after it disappointed the market with 2009 earnings that came in below expectations. The company blamed the sale at a loss of two new hotels at its Group Fadesa Maroc unit's Saidia tourism and villa complex in the east of Morocco. Sefrioui said Fadesa Maroc had agreed to supply the hotels under terms set with the government when the Saidia project began, and their sale was necessary to ensure a successful commercial launch of the development. "The (profit) margins of Fadesa Maroc's other projects are very positive. This was the only part that showed a negative margin and it happened only last year," he told reporters. He played down any prospect that the company could run short of funds as it presses ahead with new building programmes. Addoha has 190,000 homes being built or marketed and company executives said it had sales guarantees representing turnover of 14.2 billion dirhams, up from 7.5 billion dirhams in January 2009. They said Addoha has debts of 8.4 billion dirhams, 3 billion of that long-term debt, giving a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.2 times, which they said was good compared to the sector average.
Addoha reported 2009 net income of 878 million dirhams on Wednesday, down from 1.16 billion in 2008. Traders said analysts had been expecting a figure of above 1 billion dirhams. The stock closed down 5.2 percent after the results, compared to a 1.4 percent drop by the benchmark Morocco all-share index. Addoha officials said they expected the company's luxury housing brand Prestigia, which began sales last year, to achieve a profit margin of 25 percent. They said they also achieved that level of profitability last year in low and middle-income housing activities and expected to repeat the performance in 2010. Sales commitments for high-end housing already accounted for 52 percent of the total at the turn of the year Prestigia secured 3,000 sales commitments after one year of operations.By Tom Pfeiffer (Reuters)
Posts
