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UP to invest $1bn in real estate projects as profits rise

By Gavin Gibbon
UP real estate Union Properties Dubai scene Fredrick Öhlander Unsplash Unsplash/Fredrick Öhlander
Dubai developer Union Properties plans to launch new multi-billion dollar real estate projects 'over the coming few years'
  • Union Properties in rebound
  • Turnaround from AED966m loss
  • Majority of legal cases settled

Union Properties (UP), a previously troubled Dubai real estate developer, has said it plans to spend AED5 billion ($1 billion) on new projects, after its financial results rebounded last year.

Net profit for 2023 increased by 2,600 percent year on year to hit AED811 million, according to a bourse filing on Thursday.

UP, best known for its Motor City development in Dubai, recorded a AED966 million net loss in 2021.

“Today, we face the future with more confidence, envisioning a new chapter of growth,” Amer Khansaheb, managing director of UP, said in the filing.

This includes the launch of new multi-billion dollar projects “over the coming few years”, he said.

The company’s balance sheet was boosted by Dubai’s buoyant real estate industry.

The emirate recorded 166,400 real estate transactions in 2023, valued at a total of AED634 billion, according to the Dubai Land Department.

Subsidiaries of UP also posted a positive performance, with revenues from contracts with customers up 21 percent to AED508 million, from AED419 million in 2022.

However, claims involving Khalifa Al Hammadi, a former chairman, his family members and another unnamed person, remain outstanding.

On Wednesday UP’s board said that it sent a final notice detailing allegations that Al Hammadi and the other parties had defaulted on a multi-million dollar settlement agreement.

The settlement deal was announced at the company’s annual general meeting last year and involved payments totalling AED620 million.

The filing said that “remarkable progress” had been made on turning around losses and reducing capital burdens.

“The company has also successfully resolved and settled the majority of outstanding legal cases and operational issues,” it said.

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