At least 50 new retail outlets would be opened at The Pearl-Qatar by the end of the year. This was disclosed yesterday by the man-made island’s promoters United Development Company’s (UDC) executive vice-president (finance) Abdullah Araj at a meeting to formally announce the company’s half-yearly financial results. Araj said The Pearl-Qatar already had more than 40 retail outlets, some of which he said were first in the whole region. United Fashion Company (UFC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the UDC had launched the opening of a series of luxury brand stores on The Pearl-Qatar. It was also announced that UDC’s joint venture, Qatar Cool company, has won two top awards from International District Energy Association (IDEA) at its Washington conference last month. UDC chairman Hussein Alfardan said in a statement issued on the occasion that he was pleased with the financial results for the first half of 2009, which reported a net profit of QR330mn (as announced earlier this month). The gross profit stood at QR253mn and an operating profit of QR327mn. The company’s balance sheet reflected total assets of QR8.2bn. The chairman attributed the company’s financial performance and continued success to Qatar’s economic stability and to the foresight and leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Another communique quoting UDC managing director Khalil Sholy said continued investment is important even in economic downturns and that was what precisely the company was doing. UDC, it was announced, had also set up another fully-owned subsidiary, Pragmatech, earlier this year. Sholy said the UDC is confident that its business strategy is very sound. “We are confident our strategic plans will continue to enhance the broad scope of UDC’s business activities,” he said. The company listed among its achievements in the first half of 2009 the movement of the first residents on The Pearl-Qatar, including residents of UDC Towers. http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=304561&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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