Soilbuild Group expects strong showing in 2010

Q4 profit falls 12% on lower revaluation gains on investment properties

SOILBUILD Group Holdings should put up a strong showing this year as it looks to sell more units in its residential and industrial projects, says executive director Low Soon Sim.

‘After a challenging start to FY2009, the group has harnessed the recovery in the property sector with sales of 388 units worth $248 million, including all the residential units at The Mezzo as well as Woodlands BizHub, which was fully sold,’ Mr Low said.

Residential development contributed 84 per cent of FY2009 revenue of $320.1 million, while business space development accounted for 11 per cent. Soilbuild also derived 5 per cent of its revenue from rental properties.

This year, the group again expects residential development activity to bring in the bulk of revenue.

It will launch another 11 units at Meier Suites. Eleven homes in the 55-unit project were sold during the first phase of the launch. Soilbuild will also try to sell the remaining units at Leonie Parc View and Heritage 9.

Besides these, Soilbuild will start to market West Point Bizhub, its project with CSC Holdings, in FY2010. The project comprises 70 terraced factories. The group also said that recurrent rental income is poised to grow this year with the expected completion of Solaris at one-north.

For Q4 2009, Soilbuild reported a 12 per cent decline in net profit to $26.9 million, from $30.5 million a year back, due to lower revaluation gains on investment properties. Gross profit for the three months ended Dec 31, 2009 rose 66 per cent to $30.9 million, from $18.6 million previously.

Revenue rose 27 per cent to $63.5 million, from $50 million a year earlier.

Soilbuild has declared a dividend of six cents a share and proposed a one-for-one share split to improve the liquidity of its shares, subject to approval of the Singapore Exchange and shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting. The company’s stock closed one cent higher at $1.05 yesterday.

Source : Business Times – 11 Feb 2010