Saudi Real Estate Profits Jump 153% at End of 3rd Quarter

The profits of real estate sector companies in Saudi Arabia jumped by 153 percent during the first nine months of 2023. (SPA)
The profits of real estate sector companies in Saudi Arabia jumped by 153 percent during the first nine months of 2023. (SPA)
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Saudi Real Estate Profits Jump 153% at End of 3rd Quarter

The profits of real estate sector companies in Saudi Arabia jumped by 153 percent during the first nine months of 2023. (SPA)
The profits of real estate sector companies in Saudi Arabia jumped by 153 percent during the first nine months of 2023. (SPA)

The profits of real estate sector companies in Saudi Arabia jumped by 153 percent during the first nine months of 2023, compared to the same period last year, due to the growth of real estate and the major development projects implemented by the Saudi government and the private sector.

Real estate sector companies achieved an increase in their profitability during the third quarter of 2023, amounting to SAR 1.35 billion ($367.5 million) over the same period last year, after achieving consolidated profits amounting to SAR 2.23 billion ($602.1 million), compared to profits amounting to SAR 883.16 million ($238.4 million) in the same period of 2022.

The combined net profits of real estate companies listed on the Saudi Tadawul main market increased by 84.39 percent during the third quarter of 2023 on an annual basis, while 13 companies listed in the sector achieved combined profits amounting to SAR 971.04 million, compared to profits of SAR 526.64 million in the third quarter of 2022.

Real estate sector companies continued to record profitability on a quarterly basis. Their profits increased by 44.58 percent during the third quarter of 2023 compared to the second quarter of the same year, reaching SAR 671.61 million.

In sales volume and revenues, real estate sector companies recorded an increase by 13.99 percent, reaching SAR 3.29 billion, compared to SAR 2.89 billion in the same quarter of last year. Revenues in the first nine months of 2023 also increased by 9.99 percent. The companies achieved sales and revenues worth more than SAR 9.94 billion in the first nine months of 2023, compared to SAR 9.04 billion in the same period last year.



Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."