Emaar Properties, the Middle East’s largest developer, blamed increasing costs incurred amid international expansion for a rare fall in net profit for the third quarter of the year. Financial Times

The Dubai Financial Market’s bellwether stock, which is 32% owned by the government, has fallen 4% this year, compared with the overall market’s 12% rise.

Mohammed Alabbar, Emaar’s chairman, said the fall in profits had come amid a ‘period marked by severe fiscal corrections globally’.

Emaar’s US homebuilding unit, John Laing Homes, was hit by the downturn that followed the subprime mortgage crisis.

Emaar has since launched the $27bn King Abdullah Economic City on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast.

It is also building the world’s tallest tower, Burj Dubai, and marketing its various international developments, in Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.