Mainboard-listed property developer CapitaLand has seen a spectacular jump in its fourth-quarter net profit ended in December.
It said on Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit was S$886 million, up by more than 11 times from S$78 million a year ago.
The surge was due mainly to its listing and offering of its CapitaMalls Asia (CMA) shares, leading to a gain of S$899.8 million.
Divestments of several properties also raised its gains by S$40.5 million, bringing the total portfolio gain to S$929.9 million.
Revenue for the period also increased by 18.4 per cent to S$833 million, on the back of higher recognition for its residential development projects in China, Singapore and Vietnam.
But CapitaLand was also hit by a total impairment loss of S$256.8 million for its investments in Japan and Malaysia, among other things. It has also taken up a S$101 million provision for foreseeable losses for its development projects in Australia and Kazakhstan.
For the full year, CapitaLand made a profit of S$1.05 billion in 2009 – 16.4 per cent lower than the S$1.26 billion profit made in the previous year.
Of the firm’s various business units, CapitaLand Commercial showed the weakest results, posting a loss of S$272.7 million for the full year. But CapitaLand expressed confidence in CapitaLand Commercial, saying office rentals have shown signs of stabilising.
Going forward, the firm said it will continue to extend its presence into new cities in China, as well as to Vietnam.
CapitaLand CEO Liew Mun Leong said his firm did well especially in 2009, when the world was in a recession.
He said: “We all entered 2009 with great trepidation of what is ahead of us. In fact, many shareholders of companies in the world would know that 2009 is a year where we don’t talk about income statements, we don’t talk about profits.
“We frankly talk about how we can remain solvent, how we can remain not belly-up. And that was the focus of even Temasek companies.”
CapitaLand, which is 40 per cent owned by Temasek Holdings, will pay a first and final dividend of 5.5 Singapore cents. It will also give a special dividend of 5 Singapore cents for 2009, following the exceptional gain from the CMA listing.
It gave out 7 Singapore cents of dividends in 2008.
In November, CapitaLand raised S$2.8 billion through the initial public offering of CMA.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 11 Feb 2010
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