SINGAPORE (Feb 13): CapitaLand reported a 37.8% drop in 4Q17 earnings to $267.7 million from a year ago, mainly due to lower handover of units for development projects in China.
This brings FY17 earnings to $1.55 billion, up 30.3% from a year ago, the highest since FY2008.
In 4Q17, revenue decreased by 34.6% to $1,212.6 million mainly due to lower completion and handover of units from development projects in China.
The decrease was partially mitigated by higher contributions from development projects in Singapore, rental revenue from newly acquired and opened properties, as well as the consolidation of revenue from CapitaLand Mall Trust (CMT), CapitaLand Retail China Trust (CRCT) and RCS Trust (RCST) with effect from 3Q17.
Collectively, the two core markets of Singapore and China accounted for 74.5% of the group’s revenue, down from 87.2% a year ago.
EBIT from Singapore and China was $285.5 million and $380.7 million respectively.
The group also recorded a net fair value gains of $82.8 million.
For the full FY17, CapitaLand sold 1,409 residential units in Vietnam to achieve record sales of $459.6 million, 63% higher than the $282.1 million achieved in FY16.
The group also recorded higher sales value in Singapore at $1.48 billion from 407 residential units sold in FY17 compared to $1.42 billion in FY16.
In China, 8,497 units were sold for about $3.1 billion.
Lim Ming Yan, President & Group CEO of CapitaLand Group, says: “CapitaLand’s resilient financial performance has enabled the group to deliver a return on equity of 8.5% for FY17, compared to 6.6% in FY16. Largely attributable to the success of our active portfolio reconstitution strategy, we unlocked $2.6 billion through divestments and announced $5.7 billion of new investments in FY17.”
CapitaLand is proposing a final dividend of 12 cents per share for FY17, 2 cents higher than the FY16 dividend of 10 cents a share.
In a separate filing, CapitaLand says it has acquired Pearl Bank Apartments through a private treaty collective sale for $728 million
The sale price, with an additional premium estimated at $201.4 million payable to the state to top up the lease to a fresh 99 years, translates to a land price of $1,515 psf per gross floor area.
The prime site atop Pearl’s Hill in Outram Park has a land area of 82,376 sf, with an existing plot ratio of 7.45.
CapitaLand plans to redevelop the site into a high-rise residential development comprising around 800 units.
Shares in CapitaLand closed at $3.47 on Monday.
