Shares of Singapore’s third-largest property developer Keppel Land (KLAN.SI) rose as much as 2.2% on Tuesday after it reported record net profit of over $1 billion for 2010.

At 9:40 a.m., shares of Keppel Land were 1.8% higher at $4.65 with over 1.3 million shares changing hands.
“This is the first time the firm’s net profit has come in higher than S$1 billion, which has lent some optimism to its share performance today,” said Wilson Liew, an analyst at Kim Eng Securities.

“Going forward, we still have a positive outlook for the firm. Keppel’s residential sales, especially in China and Singapore are likely to remain positive,” Liew said.

 

He added that the potential divestments of Keppel’s office properties Marina Bay Financial Centre and Ocean Financial Centre may boost the firm’s bottom line, due to their strong pre-commitment levels.

 

Keppel Land posted an eight-fold rise in fourth quarter net profit to $841 million, helped by a $363.8 million one-time gain from the sale of its one-third interest in a large office project.