Jabal Omar CEO says operating challenges persist, optimistic for market improvement

Jabal Omar Development Co.’s CEO Khalid Al Amoudi

Jabal Omar Development Co.’s (JODC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Khalid Al Amoudi said that the highly challenging operating environment for the company’s business persisted throughout the past period. Accordingly, Jabal Omar’s core operating assets continue to be severely impacted by low occupancy and footfall levels.

Commenting on Q3 2021 financial results, Al Amoudi said in a statement that the company used the opportunity to refocus its efforts on executing the capital structure optimization program, which aims to stabilize its financial position and enable Jabal Omar to complete the outstanding phases of the project masterplan.

“We expect the majority of the program to be completed by the first half of 2022, after which we will begin to see its positive impact reflected on our financial performance,” Al Amoudi noted.

“We are optimistic about the improving operating environment and our performance in the coming year will be determined by the return of pilgrims to Makkah and the pace of development. The early signs are positive as steps taken by the government to ease travel restrictions, social distancing guidelines and other controls specific to Hajj and Umrah are lifted,” he added.

Elsewhere, the company expected to deliver phases 2 and 3 of its project in December 2022. An update regarding the completion date of phase 4 will be shared in due course, the statement added.

The company trimmed its net loss after Zakat and tax by 62.4% to SAR 344.8 million for the nine-month period ended Sept. 30, 2021, from SAR 917.8 million in the year-earlier period. In Q3 2021, net losses after Zakat and tax widened by 14% year-on-year to SAR 270 million from SAR 237 million.