“As for the international projects, Sapphire By The Gardens in Melbourne, Australia continued to outperform with a strong take-up rate of 83% amounting to RM871.7mil after only less than four months from the date of launch, "Sp Setia said (An artist’s impression of S P Setia’s ‘Sapphire By The Gardens’ development that is overlooking Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.)
PETALING JAYA: Property developer SP Setia Bhd expects higher contribution from its overseas projects, boosted by the strong demand for its offerings in Australia, to make up for sluggish sales in the local market.
The company is maintaining its full-year sales target at RM4bil.
Net profit in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 jumped 89% to RM253.22mil from RM134.07mil a year ago, spurred by higher contributions from its property development division.
The group said it is launching projects with a combined gross development value of RM2.03bil in the fourth quarter.
For the nine-months period ended Sept 30, 2017, SP Setia’s net profit increased to RM494.72mil from RM383.24mil in the previous corresponding period, while revenue dropped to RM2.58bil from RM3.19bil a year earlier.
SP Setia said in a statement that the group achieved sales of RM2.82bil for the nine months ended Sept 30, 2017.
“Local projects contributed RM1.66bil or 59% of the total sales while international projects contributed RM1.16bil or 41% of the total sales.
The sales secured locally were largely from the central region with RM1.17bil, SP Setia said, adding that southern and northern regions combined contributed RM495.6mil.
“As for the international projects, Sapphire By The Gardens in Melbourne, Australia continued to outperform with a strong take-up rate of 83% amounting to RM871.7mil after only less than four months from the date of launch.
“The Battersea Power Station project located in the United Kingdom contributed an effective share of RM149.2mil whereas projects in Singapore and Vietnam contributed a total of RM89.4mil in sales.”
In the same statement, SP Setia president and chief executive officer Datuk Khor Chap Jen said the company foresees stronger contributions from its international projects for 2017 and remains positive on achieving its sales target of RM4bil for the current financial year.
“Notwithstanding the total sales achieved are within the set expectation, the local market remains subdued, and the underlying demand is only strong for selective products and locations.
“However, we are pleased to note that the demand in international markets has picked up, demonstrated by the higher current nine months sales which exceeded last year’s 12 months sales.”
He added that October was a major milestone for SP Setia, as the Battersea Power Station Phase 1 comprising 12 blocks, or 865 units were completed.
Moving forward, the company said it would focus more on the launches of mid-range landed properties in the Klang Valley.
“The group remains resilient with its diversified range of new launches, and the strategy is to launch more of the landed properties in the group’s flagship townships where the underlying demand by owner-occupiers are still favourable,” it said.
