* Q1 profit slumps 73.6 percent
* Lower sales and delivery of completed units weigh on Q1
* No writedowns after U.S. unit bankruptcy
(Adds details, background, analyst comment)
By Jason Benham
DUBAI, April 30 (Reuters) - Dubai's Emaar Properties posted a 73.6 percent drop in first-quarter profit as a property slump hit sales and deliveries, but the bankruptcy of its U.S. unit gave it a break from writedowns.
Dubai's once-booming property sector is suffering a sharp slowdown, with real estate prices tumbling 41 percent in the first three months of 2009, according to property consultant Colliers. The slowdown has led to project cancellations worth billions of dollars.
Emaar, which is building the world's tallest tower in Dubai where it still derives the bulk of its revenues, said net income in the first quarter fell to 237 million dirhams ($64.52 million), or 0.04 dirham per share.
That was down from 896 million dirhams, or 0.05 dirham per share, in the year-earlier period.
"The revenues and profit for the first quarter 2009 are lower than the same period of 2008 due to lower deliveries and also lower sales of completed units," Emaar said in a statement.
The company returned to profit after posting a 1.77 billion dirham loss in the fourth quarter after it was forced to take impairments and writedowns related to struggling U.S. home builder John Laing Homes, which it took over in June 2006.
Emaar took about 4 billion dirhams of losses related to that acquisition before John Laing in February sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a move analysts said would allow Emaar to concentrate on performance in its home market.
Officials at the company were not immediately available for comment.
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The company's growth strategy for 2009 would focus on "completing existing projects, while simultaneously exploring growth opportunities in new markets", Chairman Mohamed Alabbar said in the statement.
Earlier this month, Emaar, which operates in 36 countries, said it was moving ahead with all the projects it had launched, brushing aside expectations it might cancel some plans.
The first-quarter results showed no impairment of good will and no writedowns. Revenues fell to 1.55 billion dirhams in the quarter from 2.52 billion dirhams a year earlier, Emaar said.
Emaar last year reported profit of 1.66 billion dirhams for the first quarter of 2008 -- a number it revised lower this year because Emaar changed its revenue recognition policy to include only revenues from projects it had handed over.
Prior to this, Emaar had booked revenues in stages throughout the construction process.
"They have revised their revenue recognition policy which is a good thing as they are using a more conservative accounting policy," said Saud Masud, real estate and construction analyst for the Middle East and North Africa at UBS.
The bank said its land bank value of $21.6 billion implied a 33 percent decline from land reported at the end of 2007.
"Assuming additional land was added during the last 12-15 months then on a normalised basis the decline in land bank value would be steeper than 33 percent," it said in a note earlier on Thursday.
Quarterly earnings were below the 1.12 billion dirham forecast of SICO Investment Bank in a Reuters survey earlier this month.
Emaar is the latest UAE-based developer to record a sharp decline in earnings.
Abu Dhabi's Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate this week recorded first-quarter profit drops of 35 percent and 65 percent, respectively. ($1=3.673 dirhams) (Reporting by Jason Benham; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter) (jason.benham@reuters.com; +971 4 391 8301; Reuters Messaging: jason.benham.reuters.com@reuters.net))