Property giants ride out slump
RESULTS by medium-sized property companies have been dampened by the property market slump, but most leading real estate groups have enjoyed moderate growth in their annual profits.
Most of the big local property players have announced their year-end or interim financial results, but Sino Land and Sun Kai Properties report their results this week.
Medium-sized companies such as Allied Properties and Paliburg Holdings posted disappointing interim results.
Allied Properties, controlled by Lee Ming Tee, posted a 76.7 per cent decrease to $138.34 million in net profits for the six months ended June 30.
Paliburg Holdings, a subsidiary of Lo Yuk-sui's Century City, reported an 85.4 per cent plunge in interim profits, to $180 million for the first six months of 1995 from $1.23 billion in 1994.
However, most blue-chip property companies sustained steady earnings despite the weak state of the property market.
On the surface, Cheung Kong (Holdings) is the best performer among property companies.
It posted a 33 per cent rise to about $5.95 billion in its interim profit ended June 30, compared with $3.88 million for the 1994 period.
But analysts expected full-year profit growth to be about 10 to 15 per cent.
Hysan Development's attributable profits were up 10.23 per cent to $632.27 million for the first half ended June 30.
Despite posting a cut in profit growth this year, Henderson Land Development last Wednesday posted a 16.4 per cent increase to $7.03 billion in its full-year profits ending June 30.
The growth rate was substantially cut compared with the 50 per cent increase in 1994 net earnings.
Hang Lung Development last week posted a 6.9 per cent rise in attributable profit to $2.16 billion for the year to June 30.
Its 51-per-cent-owned Amoy Properties posted a 2.8 per cent increase to $1.54 billion.
Analysts are expecting to see more encouraging results from the largest property developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties.
It will release its 1995 full-year earnings this Wednesday.
The market predicted Sun Hung Kai Properties' attributable earnings would be up 17 per cent to $10.35 billion.
Sino Land will announce its year-end results today.
