Total revenue rises 13% to KD 171mn Tariq AbdulSalam, KIPCO’s CEOKUWAIT CITY, May 13: KIPCO — the Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) — announced a net profit of KD 5.64 million ($18.8 million), or 1.53 fils per share ($0.51 cents), for the first three months of 2018, an increase of 11 percent over the KD 5.07 million ($16.9 million) reported in same period last year.During the first quarter of 2018, the company’s operating profits before provisions reached KD 23.5 million ($78.4 million), compared to KD 23.6 million ($78.7 million) in the first quarter of last year. The company also reported a 13 percent rise in its total revenue from operations during the first quarter of 2018, at KD 171 million ($570.5 million) from KD 151.5 million ($505.4 million) reported for the same period in 2017. KIPCO’s consolidated assets stood at KD 9.8 billion ($32.7 billion) compared to KD 10.3 billion ($34.4 billion) reported at year-end 2017.Tariq AbdulSalam, KIPCO’s Chief Executive Officer — Investment, said: “At our recent Shafafiyah Investors’ Forum, we projected that the challenging external elements that affected our companies’ performance in 2017 — such as competition and the weakened operating environment in the region — would continue to have an impact this year. Our positive performance this quarter reflects our sound business model and operations, and we believe that our diversified portfolio as well as years of prudent risk management and internal streamlining of operations will help us continue steadily through 2018.”