``I think we had an exceptional year in 1997,'' Nasser Chammaa said. ``I think 1998 is going to be also another excellent year in terms of our financial results. It's going to be an excellent year in terms of our operational performance, meaning being able to deliver on time.''

This year Solidere will complete the key infrastructure to underpin the vast reconstruction of downtown Beirut for which the company was floated in January 1994. The area, once a business centre for the entire Middle East, was destroyed in a 1975-90 civil war. ``It will definitely be a better year than last year,'' Chammaa said of profits in a weekend interview with Reuters. He would not offer a figure. Solidere reported a net profit increase of 32 per cent in 1997 to $77.8 million. Sales revenue in 1997 rose 56 per cent from the previous year to$144 million. Solidere's head of stock management, David Mulville said sales of land, the chief source of revenue, have been greater this year than in 1997.

Chammaa said the firm had steadily pushed up prices for land sales that cover about 80 per cent of the 1.3 million square meters in the first phase of development. But the policy was to price Solidere's rental properties on the remaining 20 per cent to ensure tenants. Solidere, which lists A and B shares on the Beirut Stock Exchange and a global depository receipt in London, had 1997 profits of $77.8 million, 32 per cent over 1996.