Fragrance full-year net profit increases fivefold S$48.55m

FULL-YEAR net profit for Fragrance Group rose more than fivefold to S$48.55 million on higher turnover, other operating income and share of results of a joint venture.

Earnings per share for the year ended Dec 31, 2017, was 0.72 Singapore cents, up from 0.11 Singapore cents for FY2016.

Turnover jumped 66.8 per cent to S$198.02 million on a 58.7 per cent increase in contribution from property development mainly due to the City Gate project, higher rental income from its investment properties and first-time contributions from its five hotels in the United Kingdom.

Gross margin slipped to 36.1 per cent for FY2017 compared to 36.5 per cent on lower margin contributed by City Gate project and low margin from the sale of held-for-sale properties.

But gross profit was still 65.1 per cent higher at S$71.52 million.

Other operating income increased by S$28.6 million largely due to fair value gain of investment properties, net foreign exchange gain and gain on foreign currency options used for hedging purposes.

Share of results of a joint venture more than doubled to S$2.90 million from S$1.3 million.

Fragrance's executive chairman and CEO Koh Wee Meng said that the good performance for FY2017 is a reflection of the group's timely diversification into property development, hotel investment sectors in Australia and the United Kingdom.