Cenomi Centers profit falls 19% as Westfield Jeddah starts trading

Summary

• Third-quarter net profit dropped 19.1% to 404.9 million riyals as revenue rose 10% to 606.2 million.
• The prior-year quarter was lifted by a one-off insurance settlement tied to a fire at a company asset.
• Stripping out one-offs, Cenomi says adjusted quarterly profit rose 32.8% to 417.9 million riyals.

The latest

Saudi mall operator Cenomi Centers posted a 19.1% drop in third-quarter net profit to 404.9 million riyals even as revenue climbed 10% to 606.2 million, according to its disclosure to the Saudi Exchange. The company attributed the decline largely to a one-off insurance payout that inflated the 2025 comparison, and said profit on an adjusted basis rose 32.8% year on year.

Details

• The headline numbers: Revenue reached 606.2 million riyals in the third quarter of 2026 against 551.3 million a year earlier, while gross profit edged up 1.9% to 460.2 million. Operating profit fell 18.7% to 563.7 million riyals, and total comprehensive income attributable to shareholders came in at 404.6 million.
• The adjusted picture: Adjusted net profit was 417.9 million riyals for the quarter versus 314.7 million in the same period of 2025, a rise of 32.8%. Over nine months, adjusted profit was 1,030.8 million riyals against 1,026.0 million, an increase of just 0.5%.
• The one-off effect: The company said the year-earlier quarter was boosted by the full and final settlement of an insurance claim linked to a fire at one of its assets. That settlement is the main reason the reported comparison shows a decline while the adjusted figure shows growth.
• New revenue lines: Development revenue of 35.6 million riyals, described by the company as a new income stream, and an initial 20.4 million riyals from Westfield Jeddah after it moved into operation drove most of the quarterly revenue gain. On a like-for-like basis, revenue rose only 1.5%.
• Cost pressure: Cost of revenue jumped to 145.9 million riyals from 99.4 million a year earlier, driven mainly by 32.7 million riyals in development cost of revenue and higher operating expenses at Westfield Jeddah following its shift to the operational phase.
• Footfall: Visitor numbers rose 20.7% year on year to 39.0 million in the third quarter, up from 32.3 million. Nine-month traffic reached 109.0 million visitors, a 10.3% increase on a reported basis and 11.4% like-for-like.
• What supported earnings: Impairment losses on receivables, related parties and accrued income fell 78.0% to 17.8 million riyals from 81.0 million. Net fair-value gains on investment properties rose 19.6% to 215.1 million riyals, and net finance costs declined 22.4% to 138.6 million, helped by interest rate swaps.
• Quarter on quarter: Revenue rose 6.5% from 569.4 million riyals in the second quarter and net profit gained 5.0% from 385.7 million, as net finance costs fell to 138.6 million from 221.2 million and advertising and promotion spend dropped to 4.0 million from 16.4 million.
• Nine-month totals: Revenue for the nine months to 30 September 2026 reached 1,758.1 million riyals, up 1.9%, with net profit at 993.1 million against 1,190.5 million. Earnings per share fell to 1.93 riyals from 2.31, while shareholders' equity rose 6.9% to 16,502.4 million.

Background

Cenomi Centers is the largest shopping-mall operator listed on the Saudi Exchange, trading under the symbol 4321. Westfield Jeddah is among its newest assets and contributed revenue for the first time in the third quarter of 2026 after entering the operational phase.

Between the lines

The gap between the reported 19.1% drop and the adjusted 32.8% rise sits almost entirely in the prior-year insurance settlement. The more structural signal is in the mix: development revenue and Westfield Jeddah supplied most of the quarterly growth, while like-for-like revenue added just 1.5%. Fair-value gains remain a sizeable non-cash component of reported earnings.

What's next

Watch Westfield Jeddah's first full operating quarter and whether development revenue repeats in the fourth quarter, alongside net finance costs, which rose to 572.9 million riyals over nine months from 489.1 million.

Source: Saudi Exchange (Tadawul)