Sunway’s 1Q revenue lifted by stronger property and construction; RM9.4b headline profit boosted by healthcare listing gain

PETALING JAYA (May 27): Sunway Bhd’s first quarter was led by a sharp rebound in property development and resilient construction earnings, with other divisions adding breadth beneath a one-off boost from the listing of its healthcare arm.

Property leads the quarter

It said in a Bursa filing that, in 1QFY2026, the property development segment had more than doubled revenue to RM653.6 million from RM263.3 million a year earlier, while profit before tax (PBT) jumped to RM102.2 million from RM33.4 million. 

The stronger performance was driven by the disposal of an education asset for RM357.0 million that delivered a RM23.1 million net gain, higher progress billings on Malaysian projects and contribution from the newly acquired MCL Group, now rebranded as Sunway MCL.

In the first quarter, the group rolled out projects with a combined gross development value (GDV) of RM2.1 billion and achieved RM1.4 billion in sales, underpinned by robust take-up for Singapore’s Pinery Residences, keeping it on track for its full-year launch and sales targets of RM4.8 billion and RM4.2 billion respectively.

On the investment side, property investment revenue rose 8.1% year-on-year to RM266.2 million, but PBT was broadly flat at RM92.4 million versus RM92.3 million. Sunway said stronger contributions from associate Sunway REIT, particularly its northern region malls, were largely offset by RM13.4 million in start-up losses from newly opened investment properties.

Construction: Lower topline, better margins

Construction remained a second earnings pillar despite a topline pullback. Segment revenue declined 35.8% to RM794.5 million from RM1.24 billion as several data centre projects passed peak construction stages, but PBT climbed 38.9% to RM159.1 million from RM114.5 million.

The group attributed the higher profitability to the finalisation of accounts on completed projects, and stressed that underlying momentum is supported by a strong order book. In 1Q, the construction arm secured RM3.59 billion in new work, more than 50% of its RM6.0 billion replenishment target, including three new data centre jobs and a new international hyperscale client.

Other segments and the healthcare listing gain

At group level, trading and manufacturing continued to gain traction, with revenue up 38.2% to RM525.9 million and PBT nearly doubling to RM31.1 million from RM15.7 million. Sunway cited higher automotive sales — particularly increased deliveries of the Zeekr 7X model — strong demand and new distributorships in heavy equipment, and a roughly 76% jump in pharmaceutical PBT on efficiency and product-mix improvements.

The healthcare segment, now consolidated after Sunway Healthcare Holdings Bhd’s Main Market listing on March 18, 2026, reported RM90.8 million in revenue and RM31.1 million PBT, compared with a RM31.8 million share of profit in the prior-year quarter when it was equity-accounted. 

At the operating level, SHH’s Ebitda grew 19.0% to RM112.0 million while normalised Ebitda rose 30.9% to RM121.7 million on the back of ramp-up at Sunway Medical Centre Damansara and Sunway Medical Centre Ipoh, despite higher depreciation and financing costs.

Group-wide, Sunway’s reported PBT surged to RM9.56 billion from RM304.1 million, while profit attributable to shareholders jumped to RM9.41 billion from RM190.6 million, lifting basic earnings per share to 139.25 sen from 2.67 sen. The spike was mainly due to a RM9.10 billion net gain from remeasuring its SHH stake to fair value and reclassifying it as a subsidiary. 

Excluding this, management said underlying PBT would have been RM462.4 million, up about 52.1% year-on-year, reflecting stronger contributions from its core property, construction and trading businesses rather than just the one-off listing gain.

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