CapitaLand Ltd, the largest developer in Southeast Asia by market value, announced quarterly profit that fell 1.7% as its residential business brought lower contributions and no one-off gains.
Based in Singapore, the firm is upbeat about the potential of its core Singapore and Chinese markets, even as a decline in housing demand in both markets is evident, it stated in a Singapore exchange filing.
First quarter net profit was 182 million Singapore dollars or 145.4 million US dollars. A year earlier, the company posted 186 million Singapore dollars in net profit, after a one-off portfolio increase bolstered earnings, the firm said.
Revenue for the three months ended March 31st dropped 3.4% to 612 million Singapore dollars, down from 634.2 million Singapore dollars the company restated.
According to Wall Street Journal, the company restated its financial results for 2013 to comply with newly introduced accounting regulations that took effect in 2014. Previously, the firm reported a net profit of 188.2 million Singapore dollars for the 2013 first quarter. For the same period, CapitaLand posted 661.9 million Singapore dollars in revenue.
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The developer’s net profit for the first quarter without considering input from its Australian ventures, which were sold off in March, was 147.4 million Singapore dollars, a decline of 13.3% from the previous year.
“We look forward to further harnessing the key strengths of our various businesses in residential, shopping malls, offices, serviced residences and integrated developments, to create differentiated real estate projects and enhance overall project returns,†the Group boss Lim Ming Yan is quoted by Bloomberg as saying. He added that China and Singapore will remain the developer’s main markets.
CapitaLand sold 1,177 property units in China with the Singapore market absorbing 34, the firm said. It’s now laying emphasis on more profitable ventures in its two core markets by offering to acquire the remaining of its mall venture.
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To contact the reporter of this story; Yashu Gola at yashu@forexminute.com
