Real estate firm Egyptian Resorts posted a net loss on Wednesday of LE 8.7 million ($1.5 million) for the first nine months of 2010, as the firm has yet to announce any land sales for the period. Egyptian Resorts reported a net profit of LE 10.1 million in the same period last year. The figures were issued by the stock exchange but no more details were published. Egyptian Resorts, which makes most of its money selling land to developers, has not sold any plots since the third quarter of 2008, when the global financial crisis dampened appetite for big real estate purchases in Egypt. The firm also said in August its board of directors agreed to take back a piece of land the company had sold for about $11 million after the buyer failed to meet some sale requirements. The firm's main 41 million square meter plot Sahl Hasheesh resort on the Red Sea is also facing a legal challenge. An Egyptian lawyer filed a suit against Egypt's prime minister and tourism minister challenging a deal selling the plot to the firm, the latest in a series of legal challenges against state land sales agreed without public auction. Mohamed Kamel, the company's new chief executive, told Reuters in April the company had enough cash and receivables to weather three to four years without selling land.
