Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries (Julphar) said it could post profit growth of 300 percent to 215 million dirhams ($58.53 million) in 2007, Al-Bayan daily quoted on Monday its chief executive officer as saying.

The firm's sales from pharmaceutical products have reached 700 million dirhams in 2007, with overseas sales contributing 630 million dirhams, Abdul Razzak Yousef told the newspaper.

The firm said earlier this month it planned to invest 1.23 billion dirhams over three years to push into Asian and Middle Eastern markets and set up an insulin plant in the United Arab Emirates.

It said it would set up seven factories in the UAE's Ras al-Khaimah emirate, where it is based, as part of plans to triple sales to 2.25 billion dirhams by 2010, Yousef said in a statement on December 12.

The firm's shares have risen more than 4 percent this month and more than 23 percent this year. - Reuters