SINGAPORE (Nov 13): Stronger property sales and better margins have helped Yanlord Land’s earnings for the nine months ended Sept 30 (9M18) has overtaken full-year earnings for the preceding FY17.

For 9M18, Yanlord’s earnings of RMB3.29 billion ($653 million) was 64% higher than RMB2 billion in the preceding period. For the full year 2017, it earned RMB3.21 billion.

For 3Q18, the company recorded earnings of RMB1 billion, up 61.4% y-o-y from RMB627.5 million in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue in the same three months was up 51.7% y-o-y to RMB5.7 billion.

For the current 4Q, the company will be launching 10 projects, across cities such as Nanjing, Hangzhou and Tianjin.

With some 4.22 million sqm in total land bank, the company says this is sufficient for new developments over the next five years.

“Riding on the strong momentum, we are positive about the outlook for FY 2018 and will continue to build on our strong brand equity and premium landbank to further enhance our future pre-sales accumulation efforts,” says chairman and CEO Zhong Sheng Jian.

Yanlord shares closed at $1.28 on Tuesday, up 1.59%, valuing the company at $2.5 billion.

As of Sept 30 2018, the company’s net asset value was RMB12.81, or $2.54. Net debt, as of the same date, was RMB29.4 billion, versus RMB16.6 billion as of Dec 31 2017.