Perennial's Q3 profit jumps, thanks to stake in UEL

PERENNIAL Real Estate Holdings reported on Tuesday a substantial jump in its net profit attributable to shareholders for its fiscal third quarter, thanks mainly to its associate company Yanlord Perennial Investment's (YPI) newly acquired stake in United Engineers (UEL).

Perennial's net profit climbed to S$16.9 million, for the quarter ended Sept 30, 2017, from S$425,00 the year before. The integrated real estate and healthcare company said that this was due mainly to the group's effective share of results from YPI, which had launched an offer for UEL shares and had closed the offer in September with a stake of 33.5 per cent in UEL.

The share of results from YPI, therefore, included a gain on bargain purchase of S$25.9 million arising from its acquisition of UEL shares.

Perennial's revenue for the September quarter had slumped 42 per cent year-on-year to S$20.4 million, from S$35.1 million. This was due to the absence of revenue from TripleOne Somerset, it said, after it divested 20.2 per cent of TripleOne Somerset in March, which led to TripleOne Somerset being deconsolidated from the group. The decrease was partially offset by higher management business income mainly from one-off consultancy fees earned from the UEL transaction.

Perennial's earnings per share for the quarter were 1.02 Singapore cents, from 0.03 Singapore cents last year.

Its shares closed on Tuesday one Singapore cent up at S$0.885 apiece.