GuocoLand Q2 earnings triple on Martin Modern sales

PROPERTY developer GuocoLand saw earnings almost triple to S$32.4 million for Q2 ended December, up from S$10.9 million a year ago. This was buoyed by a doubling in revenue to S$299.6 million, thanks to higher progressive recognition of sales from Martin Modern.

The Q2 bottomline translates to an earnings per share of 2.49 Singapore cents for the quarter, up from 0.55 cent a year ago. The earnings surge was partly offset by a doubling in other expenses to S$13.3 million, due to higher fair-value losses on derivative financial instruments. 

GuocoLand also saw its share of profits, net of tax, from associates and joint ventures drop 89 per cent to S$993,000, due to a lower share of profit from its Shanghai joint venture, and losses from a joint venture in Singapore. The latter has incurred costs for the development project, which launched on Jan 11. 

For H1 FY2020, GuocoLand saw earnings double to S$74.5 million from S$37 million, while revenue rose 84 per cent to S$572.1 million. The bottomline was partly offset by a 25 per cent rise in administrative expenses to S$47.4 million, in line with higher sales activities. 

GuocoLand's gearing was approximately 1.1 times as at end-2019, with cash holdings of S$690.4 million and borrowings of S$5.2 billion.

In a commentary accompanying its results, GuocoLand noted that overall private residential property prices have increased marginally by 0.3 per cent in Q4 2019, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority's latest flash estimates. 

Meanwhile, according to official data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, new home prices in Chongqing continue to be on the rise, increasing 8.4 per cent year-on-year in November 2019. 

GuocoLand shares closed at S$1.92 on Thursday, up 0.52 per cent.