DUBAI: Aldar Properties, the builder of Abu Dhabi’s Formula One motor racing circuit, reported a 54% rise in second-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by record sales on strong local and international demand.

Profit attributable to shareholders came in at 803.99 million dirhams ($218.91 million) for the three months to June 30, compared with 520.83 million dirhams a year earlier.

Group sales in the quarter rose 33% to 3.12 billion dirhams.

The Abu Dhabi developer also said it signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Company to acquire four commercial towers that are part of Abu Dhabi Global Market, the emirate’s international financial centre.

The Al Sila, Al Sarab, Al Maqam and Al Khatem towers, which have a total net leasable area of 180,0000 square metres, are valued at 4.3 billion dirhams, it said.

Aldar’s chief financial and sustainability officer Greg Fewer said in a call with reporters the company had 5 billion dirhams of further equity capital that would be deployed over the next 12 months.

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday it was raising its base rate by three quarters of a percentage point to 2.4% effective from Thursday, moving in parallel with the U.S. Federal Reserve’s increase as its currency is pegged to the dollar.

A correlation between home sales and long-term interest rates is not as direct for Aldar, Fewer said, because the company has a lot of cash buyers.

But borrowing costs would be impacted, he said.

“We have been very fortunate pre-hedged and purchased swaps in the last 12 months when rates were quite attractive. So we have already locked in well over a billion dirhams of fixed rates in anticipation of the acquisitions that we have been doing,” he said.