Shuaa Capital Loss Narrows as Corporate Unit Improves

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Shuaa Capital PSC, the biggest investment bank in the United Arab Emirates, said its fourth- quarter loss narrowed as its corporate unit improved and its private equity unit returned to profit.

The loss was 154.3 million dirhams ($42 million), compared with 577.4 million dirhams a year earlier, the Dubai-based bank said today in a statement. The full-year loss narrowed to 529.8 million dirhams from 889.6 million dirhams in 2008.

“Our brokerage, asset management, finance and private equity business produced positive contributions to the bottom line but write-downs and provisions offset these profits during 2009,” Chairman Majid Saif Al Ghurair said in the statement.