Abu Dhabi's Aldar Q4 profit rises to 531 mln dirhams

ABU DHABI Jan 22 (Reuters) - Aldar Properties ALDR.AD, Abu Dhabi's biggest real estate developer by market value, made a fourth-quarter profit of 531 million dirhams ($144.6 million), up 22.7 percent from the year-earlier period.

The company posted profit attributable to shareholders of 1.94 billion dirhams in 2007, compared with 1.25 billion dirhams in 2006, it said in a statement, without giving quarterly data.

Analysts' forecasts for Aldar's fourth-quarter profit ranged from 471 million dirhams to 1.01 billion dirhams in a Reuters survey last month, with the average forecast of four analysts at 686.75 million dirhams. [ID:nL28452415]

Aldar made profit attributable to shareholders of 432.72 million dirhams in the fourth quarter of 2006 and 1.41 billion dirhams in the first nine months of 2007, according to financials posted on the stock market regulator's Web site. (Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; Editing by James Cordahi)