Sime Darby Property’s first quarter net profit declines to RM28.79 million

KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Darby Property Bhd’s net profit declined to RM28.79 million in the first quarter (1Q) ended Sept 30, 2018 from RM421.69 million in the same period last year.

Revenue increased 1.6 per cent to RM480.33 million from RM472.61 million previously.

Group managing director Amrin Awaluddin said the marginal increase was mainly due to higher sales and development activities and the provision of maintenance and facilities management services at the Pagoh Education Hub.

“Our operating figures remained healthy despite a challenging environment. The market continued to be soft but there are pockets of demand for landed properties. We also continue to focus on reducing inventories both for those completed and under construction,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Excluding the share of results of joint ventures and associates, Amrin said property development’s results jumped 69.6 per cent, mainly due to higher sales and development activities in Serenia City and Denai Alam townships, Cantara Residences and the Melawati Corporate Centre.

“The property investment segment reported a profit of RM10.4 million against a loss of RM4.5 million in the previous year. The strong performance was mainly due to the commencement of a tenancy of an investment property and a gain on disposal of a United Kingdom property of RM2.6 million,” he said.

However, Amrin said the group’s leisure and hospitality segment posted higher losses of RM9.8 million from RM6.6 million in the previous year, mainly due to the lower occupancy rates achieved across all hospitality units.

On the outlook, Amrin said Sime Darby Property is on track to meet its targets of sales and unbilled sales of RM1 billion and RM2.2 billion, respectively, in 2018.

“We are cautiously optimistic on the sector’s outlook as the budget measures will also benefit our potential buyers. — Bernama