Frasers Property full-year profit tumbles 66.4% on Covid-19 hit

REAL estate developer and manager Frasers Property has posted a 66.4 per cent drop in net profit to S$188.1 million for the full year ended Sept 30, 2020 from S$560.3 million a year ago.

This is in line with its profit guidance released last month and comes as earnings were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, the mainboard-listed group said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

Earnings per share after fair value change and exceptional items stood at 3.81 Singapore cents for the full year, down from 15.94 cents in the preceding year.

Revenue slipped 5.1 per cent to S$3.6 billion, from S$3.79 billion a year earlier. Meanwhile, profit before interest, fair value change, taxation and exceptional items fell 3.6 per cent on the year to S$1.25 billion, from S$1.29 billion last year.

Frasers Property said the Covid-19 outbreak brought about worldwide hotel closures, government-imposed movement restrictions and temporary cessations of non-essential services, which adversely affected operations of the group's hospitality and retail properties.

In addition, the group extended rental rebates mainly to its retail tenants and recorded lower contributions from development projects in Australia and Singapore.

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These decreases were partially offset by higher contributions from AsiaRetail Fund and Golden Land Property Development, following the group's step-up acquisition and consolidation of their results, Frasers Property noted.

The board has recommended a final dividend of 1.5 Singapore cents per share for FY20, compared with six cents per share for FY19. This is in view of the Covid-19 pandemic's impact on earnings and in keeping with the group's conservation of financial resources given the uncertainties ahead, Frasers Property said.

Subject to shareholders' approval, the dividend is to be paid on Feb 10, 2021.

Panote Sirivadhanabhakdi, group chief executive officer of Frasers Property, noted that the group's hospitality business was the hardest hit, registering significantly lower contributions and accounting for the bulk of the impairments and fair value losses recorded in FY20.

Nonetheless, he added that there were bright spots in certain segments, particularly industrial and logistics, Thailand and, to a certain extent, China.

The group said the outlook for its various businesses will continue to remain challenging in the months ahead and will have an impact on its revenue and earnings. It added that the full impact of the pandemic cannot be ascertained at this stage as the situation is still evolving and affected by uncertainties.

"While there are near-term challenges, the group's fundamentals remain intact," added Mr Sirivadhanabhakdi.

Frasers Property shares were trading at S$1.13 as at 9.47am on Wednesday, down S$0.01 or 0.9 per cent.