Hatten Land Q1 profit jumps to RM2.6m; to hold AGM on Nov 23

CATALIST-LISTED Malaysian property developer Hatten Land on Wednesday posted a first-quarter net profit of RM2.6 million (S$850,000) for the three months ended Sept 30, more than six times its net profit of RM424,000 in the year-ago period.

This translated to earnings per share of 0.19 sen for the quarter, from 0.03 sen last year.

Revenue surged 54.6 per cent to RM83 million, from RM53.7 million a year ago. This was mainly due to higher earnings recognised from its Harbour City and Satori projects based on a "percentage of completion" method, as well as the acquisition of the Unicity Project completed in December last year, the company said.

Hatten Land said no dividend has been declared for the quarter, as it would like to conserve its cash for development and operational purposes.

In a separate regulatory filing on Wednesday afternoon, the company announced that the Singapore bourse has granted it a one-month extension till Nov 30 to hold its annual general meeting (AGM) for the financial year ended June 30, 2019.

Accordingly, Hatten Land said it will convene its AGM for FY2019 at 9am on Nov 23.

The company noted that it had sought the extension as it had spent "more time than originally expected" on the audit of the FY2019 financial statements, in part due to the adoption of new accounting standards. Therefore, it requires additional time to provide more information to the auditors to finalise its audited financial statements and the accompanying notes.

Last week, BT reported that Hatten Land's independent auditor, Ernst & Young, made a disclaimer of opinion on the group's financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2019.

While Hatten's directors have prepared the financial statements on a going concern basis based on the assumptions disclosed in the financial statements, Ernst & Young highlighted conditions that have given rise to material uncertainties on the group's ability to continue as a going concern.

However, Hatten's board disagreed.

Shares in Hatten Land were trading at 9.6 Singapore cents as at 3.21pm on Wednesday, up 4.4 per cent, or 0.4 cent.