CAIRO: Real estate firm Egyptian Resorts narrowed its losses in the third quarter of 2011 as revenue grew from its utilities business, the firm said on Tuesday. Egyptian Resorts, which makes most of its money selling land to developers, reported a quarterly net loss of LE 3.4 million ($568,419), down from a LE 6.7 million loss in the same period a year earlier. The company has not sold any plots since the third quarter of 2008, when the global financial crisis hit appetite for big real estate purchases in Egypt, but it hopes revenue from its Sawari project will reverse the trend. The firm is working with Orascom Development Holding (ODH) to develop land for Sawari, a mixed-use development that will include a marina on a 2.5 million square-meter plot at Sahl Hasheesh on the Red Sea. Chief Executive Mohamed Kamel told Reuters in October that the firm planned to launch Sawari in the second quarter of 2012. The company's net revenue for the first nine months of 2011 jumped to LE 24.2 million from 9.7 million last year. It reported a net profit of LE 1.1 million ($183,977) for the first nine months of 2011, reversing a net loss of LE 6.7 million in the first nine months of 2010. Revenues from its service operations or utilities, such as water and waste management, boosted profits. Utility service sales more than doubled from a year earlier to LE 12 million, the firm said.
