Metro earnings dive on store closures, absence of one-off gain

Store closures and a significant one-off gain in the year-ago period weighed on first-quarter results at Metro Holdings.

Net profit plunged 74.1 per cent to S$9.74 million from S$37.54 million the previous year, the group said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Wednesday evening.

For the three months ended June 30, revenue dropped 25.3 per cent to S$31.9 million from the preceding year. The drop in revenue was partly because the retail division had closed the Metro Sengkang and Metro City Square department stores, it said.

"Lower operating losses at Metro Centrepoint mitigated the impact of the lack of contribution from the closed department stores while for Indonesia, overall profitability improved marginally," it added in a press release.

Metro said that the lower bottom line was mainly due to the absence of a significant one-off net gain of S$38.1 million from the disposal of EC Mall, Beijing.

Earnings per share sank to 1.2 Singapore cents from 4.5 Singapore cents a year ago. Net asset value per share dipped to S$1.65 as at June 30, from S$1.66 as at three months earlier.

Metro shares closed flat at S$0.955 on Wednesday.