Dubai's Amlak sees net loss widen as impairments double

Troubled Islamic mortgage lender Amlak posted a wider second quarter net loss as income from its core business fell and impairments more than doubled, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.The Dubai lender made a net loss of AED52.2m ($14.21m) for the quarter, compared with a loss of AED597,000 in the comparable period one year earlier.Income from its core Islamic financing and investing assets business dropped 17.2 percent to AED130.8m, from AED158m a year ago.Impairments surged to AED61.2m from AED29.7m in the second quarter of 2010, Amlak said.The United Arab Emirates government suspended trading of Amlak along with rival Tamweel in November 2008 amid a liquidity crunch and announced intentions to merge the two Islamic lenders.That plan was effectively scrapped after the Dubai Islamic Bank raised its stake in Tamweel to 57.33 percent, effectively rendering the mortgage lender a subsidiary of the bank.Tamweel reported second-quarter net profit of AED27.7m ($7.54m) compared with AED5.4m for the year-ago period. From / Arabian Business News