Bildco\'s profit takes a drop

The Abu Dhabi National Company for Building Materials (Bildco) said yesterday its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June fell to Dh525,696 from Dh19.75 million for the corresponding period a year earlier. The total sales during the quarter ended June was Dh187.98 million, compared to Dh313.22 million for the same period last year, Bildco told the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in a statement. The company didn\'t provide a reason for the decline in its net profit and sales. However, lower profitabilty could be due to intensifying competition among suppliers of building materials in the region. Article continues below A lack of adequate supply and increasing demand is pushing up prices in the UAE, according to the latest statistics released by Abu Dhabi government. The numbers, released by the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi, showed that the prices of some building materials had surged in June compared to a month earlier. Bildco\'s shares didn\'t trade yesterday. The last trading of the stock took place on July 25 and it ended the day at Dh1.3 a share. Illiquid \"Bildco is largely an illiquid stock and doesn\'t have much bearing on the market\'s fortunes. There are no volumes in it and the institutions really don\'t track the stock\'s movements as it\'s a difficult stock for them to get out of,\" a market analyst told Gulf News. Bildco\'s main store is located at Musaffah Corniche, while there are others at the free port and Port Zayed. All are equipped with latest heavy machinery to handle steel, wood and various other building materials. Bildco produces cut and bent steel, paving slabs, tiles, concrete blocks and cement, among other items, and has stakes in separate businesses in aerated concrete, steel and reinforcing steel.