Morocco News at Maroc Info

Groupe ONA, a Moroccan investment fund owned by the family of King Mohammed VI, said full-year profit rose 80 percent, helped by investment income and capital gains.

Net income in 2007 advanced to 1.73 billion dirhams ($237.7 million), or 104 dirhams a share, from 959.3 million dirhams, or 59 dirhams, a year earlier, the Casablanca-based fund, which has interests in mining, financial services and retail, said in a statement published today in newspaper L'Economiste.

Consolidated sales, made up exclusively of affiliates, climbed 15 percent to 32.8 billion dirhams.

``Growth was particularly strong in the distribution and real-estate units,'' Chief Executive Officer Saad Bendidi was quoted in the statement as saying.

The fund had 857 million dirhams of pretax capital gains after selling units. It sold its 49 percent stake in insurer AXA Assurance Morocco in January last year for about 3.1 billion dirhams, and in November ceded its 16 percent stake in utility Amendis to Veolia Environnement Maroc for 211.7 million dirhams.

Shareholders will vote May 23 on a 35 dirham-a-share dividend, 17 percent higher than a year earlier.

Groupe ONA shares gained 11 dirhams, or 0.6 percent, as of 10:55 a.m. in Casablanca, giving the fund a market value of 33.2 billion dirhams. The stock has gained 19 percent this year after touching an all-time high of 1,918 dirhams earlier this week.


Bloomberg

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