PJ Development commits to paying dividends, staying put during tough times

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18): PJ Development Holdings Bhd (PJD) is committed to paying out dividends to its existing shareholders in the future, especially during the time the economic landscape turns patchy, said chairman Tan Sri Ong Leong Huat.

Furthermore, he said PJD is working on being more efficient and becoming more careful with property development launches, to ensure its financial performance is at least maintained in this soft property market phase.

"At this moment, we have to adopt a conservative approach. It's not even a prudent approach to aim for fantastic growth during tough times," Ong said at PJD's annual general meeting here today.

PJD, which counter is suspended due to low shareholding spread after Ong's OSK Property Holdings Bhd's failed takeover exercise, made a net profit of RM87.13 million on revenue of RM906.97 million in its financial year ended Jun 30, 2015 (FY15). Ong said he is looking to maintain PJD's profitability at this level for FY16.

In FY15, PJD's total dividends came to 6.5 sen a share.

OSK Property currently owns 89.36% of PJD. Ong intends to address PJD's lack of liquidity issue, although he did not state what the plan is. --  theedgemarkets.com