Solidere shifts from rents to sales in search for profits

Investors in Lebanese flagship developer Solidere this summer should see an improvement in the upcoming annual results, compared with the dismal year of 2012 and its 89 percent drop in net profits. Even as low confidence in the Lebanese market continues to impact the company’s sales, a better annual performance has been unfolding in 2013, General Manager Mounir Douaidy tells Executive in an wide ranging interview rich in hints and innuendo. In strategic terms, he confirms that Solidere is reprioritizing land sales and otherwise waiting out the crisis with cost-cutting  measures that include postponement of development projects and employee layoffs. Anticipating improvement The listed company has yet to release any numbers on the past year but Douaidy says that stabilized rental income and a near 20 percent reduction in company overheads will contribute positively to 2013 net income along with sales revenues from a number of land transactions. “We don’t