UEM Sunrise posts higher Q4 net profit

PETALING JAYA: UEM Sunrise Bhd's net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 rose over three folds to RM272.38 million from RM77.96 million a year ago, due to Gerbang land sales to FASTrack Iskandar Sdn Bhd of RM248.3 million and Scope Energy Sdn Bhd of RM522.7 million.
Both the land sales condition precedent were met in the quarter under review.
Its revenue more than doubled to RM1.34 billion compared with RM573.11 million for the same quarter in 2013.
For the full year period, it saw net profit fall 17% to RM479.93 million from RM579.14 million in FY13 mainly due to lower margin from land sales mitigated by higher profit from property development.
Its recorded a 9.7% jump in revenue to RM2.66 billion compared with RM2.43 billion a year ago thanks to increased revenue contribution from both property development and land sales.
On the future prospects, UEM said the Malaysian property market is expected to remain challenging in 2015 with concerns on oversupply of properties, a tight lending environment and the general economic uncertainties all contributing to create a cautious and pessimistic outlook.
"However, the group will be able to sustain its performance in 2015 on the back of the existing unrecognised revenue of RM3.9 billion from on-going projects that will continue to contribute towards the group's revenue and earnings."
Moving forward, the group is also looking to expand its geographical presence to other locations in Malaysia, particularly in the Klang Valley and Penang to provide greater flexibility to roll out new products in line with market demand and support the group's long term growth aspirations.