Sunway's FY18 above expectations

KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway Bhd's (Sunway) results for the financial year 2018 (FY18) came in above expectations as its FY18 core net profit (CNP) of RM591.2 million met 104 per cent of consensus full-year estimates.

According to the research arm of Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd (Kenanga Research ), the positive variance of Sunway's FY18 results is due to an unexpected net interest income of RM61.1 million.

“Property sales of RM1.9 billion also came in a tad higher compared to our expectation of RM1.8 billion, and management declared 2.0 sen cash dividend and share dividend distribution of 1 treasury share for every 100 existing shares held.

“This brings Sunway's full-year dividends to around 7.12 sen, higher than our expectation of 7.0 sen,” the research arm added.

Looking ahead, the group's unbilled sales are currently standing at RM2.1 billion, providing at least 2 years of earnings visibility, while its construction division has an outstanding order-book of RM6.0 billion which is sufficient fort three years.

“That said, management is looking to launch RM2.0 billion worth of projects of which 50 per cent are in Singapore. In terms of sales target for the year, management aspires to achieve RM1.3 billion worth of sales, in-line with our FY19E target of RM1.3 billion,” guided the research arm.

The research arm also adds that they do not rule out any land banking activities will take place in 2019.

Kenanga Research maintains its market perform call on Sunway with an unchanged sum of parts derived target price of RM1.50 per share.

Risks to their call include weaker or higher-thanexpected property sales and construction replenishment, higher or lower-than-expected administrative costs, negative real estate policies, and tighter lending environment.