Metro's Q2 profit falls 12.6%

RETAILER and real-estate developer Metro Holdings reported a 12.6 per cent drop in net profit attributable to shareholders for its fiscal second quarter. It said net profit fell to S$16.2 million for the quarter ended Sept 30, 2016, from S$18.6 million the year before.

This was due partly to a 26.1 per cent fall in revenue for the period, to S$28.3 million this year from S$38.3 million last year - which came from the closures of Metro Sengkang and Metro City Square earlier.

The drop in profit was also due to a one-off gain in the year-ago quarter; in the September quarter of 2015, Metro recognised a gain of S$4.3 million on the disposal over the carrying value of its Frontier Koishikawa office building in Tokyo.

The group's earnings per share were two Singapore cents, down from 2.2 Singapore cents last year.

Metro shares closed one Singapore cent down at 99.5 Singapore cents on Monday.