I-Bhd's 4Q net profit up 25% on property development and leisure gains

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 27): I-Bhd's fourth quarter net profit climbed 24.76% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM17.66 million from RM14.16 million due to more contribution from its property development and leisure segments.

Earnings per share for quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (4QFY17) went up to 1.66 sen compared to 1.33 sen a year ago, with revenue rising 25.51% y-o-y to RM129.11 million from RM102.86 million, its bourse filing showed.

I-Bhd said both revenue and profit before tax for the property development segment were higher because of further sales from both the existing and recently launched projects in i-City, and construction progress.

However, losses in the property investment segment widened from a year earlier as a result of maintenance costs and higher share of expenses from its associate company Central i-City Real Estate Sdn Bhd.

For the full financial year (FY17), net profit rose 13.27% y-o-y to RM75.48 million from RM66.63 million, while revenue gained 21.25% to RM465.08 million compared to RM383.57 million in FY16.

I-Bhd said its projects — Liberty, Parisien, and Hyde towers — would be completed and handed over in the third quarter of 2018.

The progressive completion of the projects and continuous sales from ongoing projects will result in better financial performance for the property development segment in FY18 compared to FY17.

Its unbilled sales as at Dec 31, 2017 dipped to RM274 million versus RM303.3 million as at Sept 30, 2017 due to the completion of the i-Suite project.

However, it believed that the continuous sale of 8 Kia Peng and other ongoing projects would contribute positively towards the unbilled sales in FY18.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, the board is confident that I-Bhd would achieve commendable operating results for FY18.

At 12.30pm, the stock remained unchanged at 53 sen with 60,700 shares done for a market capitalisation of RM529.29 million. — theedgemarkets.com

For more stories, download EdgeProp.my pullout here for free.