Thank you for standing by. My name is Angela, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Ezdan Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Fabian Mukwerere. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Angela. Good afternoon and welcome to Ezdan Second Quarter and Half Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call. On today's call, we have Ezdan's management team. We've got Tamer Fouad, who is the Group Chief Financial Officer, and we've got Taha Moussa, who is the Financial Controller and IR Officer. And as usual, they will first go over the performance, and as Angela said, and then we have a Q&A session immediately afterwards. I will now turn over the call to Tamer to begin. Over to you, sir. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Fabian. Good afternoon, everyone. At the beginning, thank you for joining us today in Ezdan conference call to discuss the financial performance and financial position of Ezdan Holding Group for first half, 2024. We have made available on the investors presentation for this conference call on our company website, www.ezdanholding.qa, which can be found under Investor Relations section. Before proceeding, we would like to provide a disclaimer that some of the information that will be discussed here might contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or future financial performance of Ezdan Holding Group. Any forward-looking statements included here speaks only of when it is made. Ezdan undertakes no obligation to publicly update or publicly revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. Today conference call will include three sections.
The first section will be comparing the financial performance of first half 2024 compared to first half 2023. The second section will be about financial position of 30 June 2024 compared with 31 December 2023, and the third one will be a very brief overview of the cash flow statement in first half 2024 compared to first half 2023. First part, which is related to the financial performance, Ezdan achieved a net profit to its owners of around QAR 177 million, compared to QAR 161 million.
The profit and loss statement contains main changes the following factors: finance costs decreased by around QAR 64 million, rental income and other operating revenue decreased by around QAR 61 million, operating expenses decreased by around QAR 18 million. The growth in carried loss in products by around QAR 5 million compared to a gain of QAR 9 million.
General and admin expenses decreased by around QAR 12 million. The main ratios of financial performance were as follows: operating gross margin was 82% compared to 81%. Net profit margin was 19% compared to 17%. In terms of the components of profit or loss statement, Ezdan recognized the rental income of QAR 866 million compared to QAR 916 million, with a decrease of around QAR 60 million, representing around 5%. The decrease in rental revenue was mainly attributed to decrease of QAR 68 million for residential segment, with around 9%. On the other hand, the hotel segment increased by around QAR 16 million, representing 21%, and mall segment increased by QAR 2 million, representing around 6%.
The main statistics for residential segment was average occupancy rate of around 90% compared to 87%, with an average revenue per unit was around QAR 4,400 compared to QAR 5,100, and total units available for rent of around 31,600, compared to 30,400. The main statistics of hotel segment was average occupancy rate of around 77, 78% compared to 64%, with an average daily rate of QAR 194 compared to QAR 190. The main statistics of mall segment was average occupancy rate in malls was around 91% compared to 90%. Concerning operating expenses, operating expenses have decreased of around QAR 18 million from QAR 184 million in 2023 compared to QAR 166 million in 2024, which means a decrease by around 10%.
On component basis, the decrease was mainly in utilities charges by QAR 11 million and sewerage charges by around QAR 8 million. On segment basis, the decrease was mainly in residential segment of around QAR 18 million. Operating profit from main operations was around QAR 745 million, compared to QAR 779 million, with a decrease of QAR 34 million, representing around 4%. On segment basis, operating profit for residential segment was around QAR 633 million, compared to QAR 687 million, with a gross margin of 84% compared to 83%. Operating profit from the hotel segment was QAR 73 million compared to QAR 58 million, with a gross margin of 67% compared to 64%. Operating profit from mall segment was around QAR 59 million, compared to QAR 34 million, with a gross margin of 78% compared to 70%.
General and admin expenses have decreased by around QAR 12 million, from QAR 58 million to QAR 46 million, representing around 20%. The decrease was mainly due to decrease in professional and legal expense, legal fees expense by around QAR 16 million, while combined increase in other categories by around QAR 4 million. Regarding financial support, it decreased by around QAR 64 million from QAR 572 million to QAR 508 million, representing 11%. Now we move to the second part, which is related to the financial position. As of 30 June 2024, the group has total assets of around QAR 47 billion, with no material changes. Cash and bank balances was QAR 246 million, compared to QAR 372 million, with a decrease of around QAR 126 million, representing 34%, which mainly utilized for settlement of liabilities.
Investment properties of around QAR 46 billion, which have slightly increased by around QAR 40 million, representing mainly additions and capitalized expenditures during the period. The total liabilities were QAR 13.2 billion compared to QAR 13.5 billion, with a decrease of around QAR 0.3 billion, representing 2%. Trade and other payables have decreased by around QAR 515 million, due to related parties have decreased by around QAR 216 million. Islamic borrowings have increased by around QAR 456 million. That increase resulted mainly because of obtaining a new facility amounting to QAR 657 million, financial cost of around QAR 410 million, and repayment of around QAR 613 million during the period. Total equity, including non-controlling interest, was around QAR 33.5 billion, compared to QAR 33.4 billion.
The share capital of Ezdan is QAR 26.5 billion. Retained earnings have increased by QAR 177 million, which represents net profit for first half 2024. Regarding the third part of this conference call, it is related to the cash flow statements. Net cash flows from operating activities were QAR 652 million, compared to QAR 772.4 million. Net cash flows used in investing activities were QAR 35 million, compared to QAR 40 million, and the net cash flows used in financing activities was QAR 745 million, compared to QAR 677 million. Thank you. Operator, you can start the Q&A session.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. Again, press star one to join the queue. Your first question comes from the line of Zohaib Pervez with Al Rayan Investment. Please go ahead.
It's, thank you. This is Zohaib from Al Rayan Investment, but we'll take it, Al Rayan Investment for now. So could you repeat the occupancy levels across your different segments, the hotel, residential, and mall? Also, I think you mentioned that your rental rates have, I could not understand. Has it gone down or they have come up, from, I think QAR 4,800 to QAR 5,100 something. So could you give us, you know, more information on that? Thank you.
Thank you. Regarding occupancy rate, residential segment around 90%, hotel is 74, and the mall, 91%. Regarding the rate, it has decreased from 2023- 2024.
Sorry, what has decreased from 2023, 2024?
The decrease was in rental rate. We are talking about
Okay.
average in 2023 was around 5.1, and in 2024, 4.6. Here I'm talking about the rate, not about the revenue per unit.
Oh, so the rental rates declined from QAR 5,100 per month to QAR 4,600.
Exactly.
Per month?
Yes. Exactly.
And, okay. And, this decline is because you have more supply, or is it because the, you know, there is a tough, there's competition in the market? And so why do you think there is a decline? Why do you think there was this decline from QAR 5,100 to QAR 4,600?
And because when we are talking about the rates, we are talking about the rates during the six months, the average of six months. The average of six months in 2023 was impacted by the rates coming from World Cup 2022. So the rates, the average was high, but in 2024 it was not affected. That's the main reason.
Okay. And total units is still the total units available is 30,500?
Exactly. Now we are starting in 2023, it was the average units available for rent it is 30.4. It increased gradually. Now we are talking about 33,000 units available for rent, and it is totally injected in the market. So now there is no pipeline.
Now your total units available are 33,500?
Exactly. And it now it is all, all of them is available in the market.
All of them are available, okay. When did this new 3,000 units were launched?
It was at the beginning of this year.
Beginning of this year. Okay. Okay, thank you.
Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. As there are no further questions, I will now turn the conference back over to Fabian Mukwerere. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Angela. If we no longer have questions on the line, then it brings us to the end of our call. Thank you all for joining us this afternoon for Ezdan's call. I also want to thank the management team for taking the time to update the market. Please do join us for the third quarter conference call, and good afternoon to you all.
Thank you.
That concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.