Sunway Q1 net profit 5.7% higher

PETALING JAYA: Sunway Bhd’s net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017 rose 5.69% to RM107.91 million from RM102.10 million a year ago due to lower income tax expense.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the group reported lower income tax expense of RM27.34 million during the quarter compared with RM32.84 million a year ago.
However, the group’s pre-tax profit for the quarter fell 13.04% to RM153.12 million from RM176.08 million a year ago due to lower contribution from most of its business segments.
The property development segment reported a pre-tax profit of RM25.1 million compared with RM69.1 million a year ago due to lower revenue, which was affected by lower sales and progress billings from local development projects.
In addition, no sales were recorded for the group’s wholly owned Avant Parc project in Singapore during the quarter as the project was fully sold in the second quarter of 2016.
The property investment segment reported pre-tax profit of RM31.1 million compared with RM33.5 million a year ago due to higher opening and operating expenses incurred for Sunway Velocity Mall.
The construction segment reported pre-tax profit of RM36.9 million compared with RM37.7 million a year ago while the quarry segment reported pre-tax profit of RM500,000 compared with RM6.1 million a year ago.
Only the trading and manufacturing segment and other segments reported higher pre-tax profits during the quarter, at RM8.8 million and RM50.7 million respectively.
Revenue for the quarter rose 2.09% to RM1.09 billion from RM1.07 billion a year ago due to higher contribution from all business segments, except property development, which reported lower revenue of RM143.3 million compared with RM234.1 million a year ago.
Moving forward, the group expects to deliver a satisfactory performance in the next quarter. Based on Bank Negara Malaysia’s economic forecast and the improving global economic forecast by International Monetary Fund, the group expects the Malaysian economy to remain resilient, which augurs well for the group.