Riyadh – Mubasher: Leejam Sports on Sunday announced that its net profit after zakat and tax for the first nine months of 2018 were nearly stable.

The newly-listed Saudi firm’s net profits amounted to SAR 126.23 million ($33.65 million), registering a slight rise of 0.4% from SAR 125.71 million ($33.51 million), the company said in a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

Leejam’s profits grew on the back of an increase in revenues, particularly due to the opening of new centres, including six women centres, during the nine-month period, it said.

Sales grew 6.75% year-on-year to SAR 574.81 million from SAR 538.44 million, Leejam revealed, noting that its total profit was SAR 211.22 million versus SAR 207.73 million.

Total shareholders’ equity after deducting minority shareholders’ equity reached SAR 157.67 million between January and September, up 133% year-on-year from SAR 67.58 million.

Earnings per share (EPS) amounted to SAR 2.41 in the first nine months of the year against SAR 2.4 in the same period of 2017.

As for Q3-18, the sports chain’s net profits after zakat and taxes grew 39.76% to SAR 53.76 million from SAR 43.18 million, it said, noting that revenues also grew 13.77% year-on-year to SAR 210.29 million in Q3-18 from SAR 184.83 million.

Leejam attributed the profit growth in Q3-18 to higher revenues, although they were slightly offset by an SAR 10.3 million cost of revenue and an SAR 4.6 million net rise in all other costs including financing costs and zakat.

“Membership revenue rose by SAR 23.2 million attributable to increase in the number of centres due to new centre openings in the current year (in particular female centres) and ramping up of non-Like-for-like centres of last year,” the Saudi firm revealed.

It added that a rise in revenues from personal training (PT) grew by SAR 2.3 million on higher number of PT centres contributing during Q3-18.

Bahrain-based Investcorp listed its portfolio company Leejam Sports on Tadawul in September, making it the first chain to list in the region. Leejam commenced trading on Tadawul 10 September.