The Lebanese Company for the Development and Reconstruction of the Beirut Central District S.A.L. (Solidere) released its consolidated financial statements (which take into account the company’s subsidiaries), reporting a net loss of $15.91 million in 2020, compared to a profit of $48.97 million a year earlier. In detail, revenues from property and land sales soared to $381.95 million with gains on the sale of investment properties rallying to $4.69 million, while rental revenues fell by 57.14% to $22.81 million. Concurrently, cost of revenues accelerated at a much faster pace than revenues, rallying from $152.86 million in 2019 to $274.09 million in 2020, as some $31.9 million in previously capitalized costs on abandoned development projects were written off in 2020. Consequently, net operating profit contracted by 2.43% to $142.80 million, while general and administrative expenses increased by 10.48% to $26.78 million. In parallel, the Group recorded some $29.19 million in provisions for impairment compared to provisions of around $18.27 million a year earlier, as allowances for impairment on notes and accounts receivable increased from $5.83 million in 2019 to $17.38 million in 2020. The audit report mentioned that following the Beirut Port blast, the company ran an assessment of its properties and accordingly allocated some $21.7 million in provisions for contingencies, justifying the significant rise in said account. Furthermore, Solidere suffered a $34.46 million loss from its participation in affiliated entities, compared to a $14.59 million loss in 2019 as the group’s share from the losses of Solidere International Limited increased from $13.07 million in 2019 to $31.68 million in 2020. Finally on the profit/loss front, the sizeable contraction in interest expense owes to the deleveraging of the company (as will be highlighted later), while Solidere recorded some $22.04 million in losses on exchange as the company purchased some $59 million in bank notes from the parallel market according to the audit report. On the balance sheet front, Solidere Group’s consolidated assets narrowed by 9.29% during the year 2020 to just above $2.04 billion, down from $2.25 billion at year-end 2019. More specifically, accounts and notes receivable sank by 57.44% to $55.30 million, with land inventory & projects under construction receding by 20.12% to around $0.89 billion (circa 43.47% of total assets). On the other hand, the Group’s total liabilities fell by 41.73% in 2020 to $243.23 million as the company used sale proceeds to fully reimburse its banks’ credit facilities, while shareholders’ equity fell by 1.90% to about $1.80 billion.