CAIRO: Talaat Moustafa Group, Egypt s largest real estate developer by market value, made a fourth quarter net profit of LE 100 million ($18 million), on lower sales, but missed an analyst forecast. The company said it made LE 1.44 billion net profit for full-year 2008, up 8 percent year-on-year, while its nine-month net profit was LE 1.34 billion. Reuters calculated the fourth quarter profit by deducting the nine-month result from that for the full year. Investment bank EFG-Hermes had forecast a fourth-quarter profit of LE 671 million. The underperformance on both the top and bottom lines was attributable mainly to much lower recognition of residential sales, which we believe was due to limited delivery of units in the quarter, the EFG-Hermes said in a note. EFG-Hermes said Talaat Moustafa s off-plan sales were LE 904 million, less than expectations of LE 1.877 billion. The company did not provide fourth quarter figures. Talaat Moustafa said revenues for 2008 more than doubled to LE 5.45 billion. The company s former chairman, Hisham Talaat Moustafa, pled not guilty last year in the murder case of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim.
