PETALING JAYA: Eco World Development Group Bhd’s (EcoWorld Malaysia) net profit for its first quarter ended Jan 31 jumped 71% to RM62.43 million from RM36.51 million a year ago mainly due to a 60% increase in the group’s share of results from joint ventures in line with the substantially higher profits recorded by EcoWorld International.
Its revenue fell 5.7% to RM507.35 million from RM537.95 million previously. EcoWorld Malaysia’s future revenue position as at Feb 28, 2021 remains high at RM3.59 billion, providing clear earnings visibility going forward.
EcoWorld Malaysia recorded RM706 million in sales in Q1’21 which is more than double the RM305 million sales achieved in Q1’20. As at Feb 28, total year-to-date sales amounted to RM911 million, giving the group a head start to FY2021.
“We are encouraged by the strong sales of RM911 million achieved as at Feb 28, 2021. The first four months of the financial year are typically slower months due to the year-end holidays and Chinese New Year festivities.
“On top of that the government decided to impose MCO 2.0 on Jan 13, 2021 to curb a fresh outbreak of Covid-19 in all three regions where we have our projects,” said EcoWorld Malaysia president & CEO Datuk Chang Khim Wah.
Total sales achieved by EcoWorld Malaysia over the last 10 months amounted to RM2.88 billion, which is close to the highest it has ever achieved in a similar period, even in the pre-Covid era, he added.
The group will shortly be launching Eco Botanic 2, offering landed homes priced from RM500,000 to RM800,000 in Iskandar Malaysia, followed by the launch of Co-Homes at Eco Grandeur in the Klang Valley and Eco Horizon in Penang as well as Ergo Homes at Eco Forest in the Klang Valley.
“All these products are priced affordably and are therefore ideal for Gen-Y & Gen-Z purchasers to begin their homeownership journey with EcoWorld,” said Chang.
Meanwhile, EcoWorld International recorded a profit after tax of RM56.6 million, with sales of RM312 million in the first quarter.
As at Feb 28, EcoWorld International has achieved RM408 million sales and its future revenue position remains healthy at RM2.2 billion. Premised on that, it has declared a maiden interim dividend of 1 sen per share.
“EcoWorld International’s sales of RM408 million as at Feb 28 are all from Open Market Sales (OMS) of the group’s properties. The continued strong overseas demand we have been experiencing also clearly demonstrates that London is still the preferred destination for global property investors which bodes well for both the OMS and Built-to-Rent (BtR) segments of our portfolio,” said EcoWorld International president & CEO Datuk Teow Leong Seng.
Moving ahead, EcoWorld International is hopeful that property market conditions in the UK and Australia will continue to improve with mass rollout of vaccination programmes against Covid-19 progressing well in the two countries.
“The extension of the stamp duty holiday to June 2021 also signals the UK government’s intention to continue providing support to the real estate market, which bodes well for its projects in the UK. Down south in Australia, there have also been some early signs of turnaround in the property market as home prices recorded a slight improvement in the first quarter of FY2021,” said Teow.
