Emirati Emaar Properties announced the sale of its subsidiary ASV, the owner of the Sky View Hotel, to Evergreen Hospitality Ltd. for AED 750 million ($204 million).
In a disclosure to the Dubai Financial Market, Emaar said that the decision to sell the hotel, which consists of 160 rooms, is in line with its strategy to dispose of light assets in the hospitality sector.
The value of the deal constitutes about 1.4 percent of Emaar’s net assets at the end of 2020, with the sale expected to raise assets by AED 50 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Under the deal, Emaar Properties will retain ownership of the Sky Bridge restaurant. The Hotel Management Company has entered into an agreement to manage the hotel.
Emaar said that it concluded the sale deal on Oct. 8 and received its value at the end of the year. Ownership of the subsidiary that owns the hotel has been transferred to the buyer, but the transfer of the stakes in the company that owns the hotel operations has not yet been completed and is expected to be closed on Jan. 15.
Emaar, listed on the Dubai Financial Market, had announced a 72 percent decrease in net profit by the end of the third quarter of 2020 to reach AED 429.4 million, compared with AED 1.539 billion in the same period in 2019.
The company lost about 33 percent of its revenues, which reached AED 4.341 billion, compared with AED 6.444 billion in the third quarter of last year.
Emaar revealed a 48 percent decline in net profit during the first nine months of 2020 to reach AED 2.4 billion, compared with AED 4.6 billion for the same period last year.
However, Mohamed Alabbar, CEO of Emaar, said that he is “optimistic” about the remainder of 2020 and confident that most sectors will see an improvement by the summer of 2021.
