Property investment group Chinese Estates Holdings, controlled by the Lau brothers, is to increase its final dividend by 20 per cent, despite a sharp slump in profit last year.
With no large exceptional gains to buoy results, attributable profit fell 56.7 per cent to $512.46 million for the year to December 31.
In the previous year, profit was boosted by a $962.8 million gain from the sale of properties.
Turnover dropped more than 48 per cent to $1.17 billion and earnings per share were more than halved to 32 cents from 73 cents previously.
Despite the fall, directors have proposed a final dividend of 18 cents, up from 15 cents, making a total dividend of 29 cents, compared with 25 cents in 1994.
The latest figure included some exceptional gains from the disposal of investment properties, although at $23 million they were nowhere near the previous year's gains.
There were no significant property disposals last year.