KUWAIT CITY, July 27: KIPCO – the Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) – has announced a net profit of KD 14.1 million (US$ 46.5 million), or 7.76 fils per share (US$ 2.6 cents), for the first six months of 2017, compared to KD 28 million (US$ 92.4 million), or 18.30 fils per share (US$ 6 cents), reported for the same period last year.In the second quarter (the three months ended 30 June, 2017), KIPCO made a net profit of KD 9.1 million (US$ 30 million), compared to KD 14.5 million (US$ 47.9 million), reported in the same period of 2016.KIPCO’s consolidated assets remained at the KD 10 billion (US$ 33 billion) reported at year-end 2016.Mr Tariq AbdulSalam, KIPCO’s Chief Executive Officer – Investment, said the company’s results during the first six months of the year were in line with expectations for a challenging year: “While we are still facing a number of external challenges that are affecting our performance, as projected earlier this year, our core businesses continue to exceed the results expected from them during these difficult times. Our continued internal streamlining efforts and building of capacity across the Group will allow us to emerge stronger from 2017. We continue to see positive signs that transitory factors affecting some of our portfolio companies are being handled well, and these companies are moving in line with our expectations. This makes us cautiously optimistic for the coming years.”