CapitaLand halts trading pending an announcement

CAPITALAND on Thursday at 12.54pm requested for a trading halt, "pending release of an announcement", leading the market to wonder what it was planning to announce.

It last traded at S$3.55, up one cent, after hitting an intra-day high of S$3.56 at about 11am. Some 2.6 million shares changed hands.

Last Thursday, the real estate juggernaut posted an 11.8 per cent fall in net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015, to S$161.3 million, mainly because it stopped recognising contributions from Australand, an associate that was divested in March last year.

Its net profit from continuing operations, however, was 9.4 per cent higher than a year ago on the back of an increased stake in CapitaMalls Asia as well as portfolio gains in the first quarter, partially offset by lower revaluation gains from investment properties.

Revenue leapt 49.4 per cent in the first quarter to S$915 million from a year ago, fuelled by stronger contributions from the group's residential projects in Singapore and Vietnam.