Interior contractor signs new orders worth $136m

Dubai-based interior contractor Depa said its net loss for the first quarter of 2012 has narrowed to Dh8.7 million ($2.36 million) from last year’s loss of Dh19.3 million ($5.25 million) thanks to an impressive order backlog.

Announcing the Q1 results, Depa said the contract income soared 15.5 per cent to Dh378.1 million ($102.9 million) compared to Dh327.2 million ($89.05 million) the year before. The gross profit margin was 10.9 per cent as the business started to see a return to more normal margin levels following the resumption of new project work which clients had held due to the economic downturn.

On its net loss, Depa said it was an improvement on prior year results as they reflect the seasonal cyclicality in earnings which are heavily weighted to the second half of the year.

This seasonal cyclicality is caused by a combination of factors related to the tendency of project completions to be tied to the end of the fiscal year and work on projects accelerating towards the end of the fiscal year. Commenting on the results, CEO Mohannad Sweid said Depa’s backlog continued to remain at record levels and as of March 31 this year the order stood at Dh3.9 billion ($1.06 billion), compared to Dh3.8 billion ($1.03 billion) in the last quarter.

This record backlog reflects just under Dh500 million ($136.09 million) of new contracts signed during the first quarter, he pointed out.