UOL Group’s full-year profit almost triples to S$424.1m

Property developer UOL Group on Tuesday said that its full-year profit nearly tripled to S$424.1 million.

The good showing came on the back of a 12 per cent increase in revenue to S$1 billion.

UOL said the increase was due mainly to higher income from property development and property investments. Such earnings helped to partially offset higher finance expenses.

While there are still concerns over the pace of economic recovery in the US and the developed countries, UOL noted that the outlook for the global economy has generally improved.

As such, it expects demand in the residential property market to remain resilient.

But UOL pointed out that the huge supply of new office space will exert further pressure on rental rates.

For the hotel sector, it expects higher occupancies for its hotels, though room rates are expected to recover at a slower pace.

Meanwhile, UOL said it does not see an immediate impact on revenues from the government’s recent measures to cool the residential property sector – if other more stringent measures are not introduced.

Gwee Lian Kheng, group chief executive, UOL Group, said: “Over the longer term, if you say the other restrictions or price controls … yes it may restrict, but I do not see that it will affect (the company) in the short and medium term.”

The mainboard-listed property company sold more than 1,000 residential properties in Singapore last year, up by 15 per cent from 2008.

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 23 Feb 2010