For your information

Solidere shaken bypolitical uncertainty Real estate behemoth Solidere released its 2011 results posting a net profit of $162.6 million, down 16.9 percent from the prior year when the company brought in $196.5 million. This significant drop reflects the overall slowing of the Lebanese real estate market, due mainly to political tensions in Lebanon and the armed uprising in Syria. The company’s real estate sales brought in $241.7 million last year, down from $337.2 million in 2010. Solidere emphasized that while profits dropped over the last year, it still holds 1.88 million square meters of land worth some $8 billion, in a market where property is scarce. “These results come despite the unstable domestic and regional situation which the country has passed through since the beginning of last year, and which had a negative impact on the economic, commercial and real estate activity,” the company said in the report. One bright