Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (Taqa) posted its second-successive drop in full-year net profit yesterday as charges against its business in the North Sea and lower gas prices in North America affected its earnings.

The state-owned utility said in a bourse filing that net profit for 2012 fell 14% to 640mn dirhams ($174.2mn) from 744mn dirhams a year ago.

Taqa did not provide quarterly figures but, according to a Reuters calculation, the company recorded a narrower loss in the fourth quarter of 53mn dirhams versus a loss of 380mn dirhams in 2011.

Taqa attributed the drop in annual profit due to a one-off charge which restricted tax relief on decommissioning spending in the North Sea as well as lower North American gas prices.

The company, which is 75% owned by the Abu Dhabi government, said in November it would cut spending in North America by 30% in 2013 to weather a downturn in commodity prices, including a 40% year-on-year drop in natural gas prices.

Revenue in 2012 increased to 27.5bn dirhams from 24.2bn dirhams in the previous year.

UNB

Union National Bank, Abu Dhabi’s fourth-largest lender by market value, posted an 8.6% rise in quarterly profit yesterday, helped by higher interest income and income from Islamic financing.

The bank said it made fourth-quarter net profit of 136mn dirhams ($37.03mn) in the three months to December 31, up from 125mn dirhams in the prior-year period. Full-year profit was 1.6bn dirhams, compared to 1.5bn dirhams in 2011.

Fourth-quarter provisions stood at 352mn dirhams versus 292mn dirhams in the prior year period.

UNB, which is 50% owned by the Abu Dhabi government, earned revenues totalling 3.09bn dirhams in 2012 compared to 2.83bn dirhams in 2011.

Deposits at the bank rose 5.2% in 2012 to 63.4bn dirhams from 60.3bn dirhams in 2011, while net loans and advances decreased 0.4% to 57.3bn dirhams at the end of 2012 from 57.6bn at the end of the previous year.

Jazeera Airways

Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways Group said its net profit almost doubled to 2.5mn Kuwaiti dinars ($8.88mn) in the fourth quarter of 2012 from 1.3mn dinars a year earlier.

Full-year net profit jumped 32% to 13.9mn dinars from 10.6mn dinars in 2011, the carrier said in a statement yesterday. The full-year result slightly beat the 13.22mn dinars net profit forecast by analysts at Kuwait’s NBK Capital and the 12.1mn profit dinars predicted at Egypt’s EFG-Hermes Holding.

“Like 2011, 2012 was another record-breaking year in every sense. This performance continued to be driven directly by a healthy, growing, profitable and sustainable airline business,” Marwan Boodai, the airline’s chairman, said.