Straits Trading's Q1 profit down 53.6%

THE Straits Trading Co's first quarter net profit more than halved to S$9.69 million from S$20.88 million, partly due to lower contributions from associates and joint ventures.

Total revenue for the quarter under review eased 7.2 cent year-on-year to S$123.9 million due to weaker tin mining and smelting revenue.

Earnings per share dropped to 2.4 Singapore cents from 5.1 Singapore cents previously.

For the quarter under review, share of results of associates and joint ventures fell 70.5 per cent to S$5.86 million. The higher share of results for Q1 2017 was largely due to marking investment properties acquired by an associate to their valuations, said Straits Trading.

Chew Gek Khim, executive chairman of Straits Trading, said: "We intend to further grow our Japan residential rental properties, which are now providing a source of immediate and recurring income, to aggregate into a larger portfolio to obtain the highest risk-adjusted returns."

"We will also continue to redeploy capital into attractive investments in other regional markets to grow our already sizeable real estate asset base. Some of the markets we like are China and Australia, the latter which is showing signs of recovery in the office market," Ms Chew added.