UPDATE 1-Aabar's Q3 profit surges to 1.48 billion dirhams
(Adds quotes, share price moves)
By Stanley Carvalho
ABU DHABI, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Third-quarter net profit at Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments AABAR.AD rose 74-fold to 1.48 billion dirhams ($402.9 million) from 19.9 million dirhams a year ago, helped by gains in investments, it said on Thursday.
Aabar, which is majority owned by Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), bought stakes in Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and Virgin Galactic earlier this year and said the profit included 292.9 million dirhams that came mainly from changes in the fair value of investments available for sale.
"The increase in Aabar's profit can be largely attributed to its very successful investment in Daimler which has shown significant growth as well as a profit in several of Aabar's other investments," Chairman Khadem al-Qubaisi said in a statement.
Aabar's shares were down 2.26 percent at 2.6 dirhams, outperforming the main index .ADI which fell 2.5 percent.
Aabar will continue pursuing investments globally and in new areas, said Mohamed al-Husseiny, Aabar chief executive.
"I can confirm that potential future transactions include new opportunities around the world and in areas not previously explored by Aabar, such as Latin America as evidenced by our recent acquisition of shares in Banco Santander in Brazil."
In October Aabar invested $328 million in the initial public share offer for Banco Santander (Brasil) SA (SAN.MC) (SANB11.SA) (BSBR.N).
In March Aabar bought a 9.1 percent stake in Daimler and in July it bought a 32 percent stake in Virgin Galactic [VA.UL], British entrepreneur Richard Branson's commercial space flight venture ($1=3.673 UAE dirhams) (Editing by Greg Mahlich)
