SINGAPORE (July 31): Property and hospitality group Roxy-Pacific Holdings saw a 26% decline in earnings to $14.7 million for the 2Q17 ended June, from $19.9 million a year ago.
This came on the back of lower revenue from its property development and hotel ownership segments.
Group revenue fell 21% in 2Q17 to $77.8 million, from $98.4 million a year ago.
Revenue from Roxy-Pacific’s property development business, which accounted for 82% of group turnover, fell 24% to $63.8 million.
This was largely due to lower revenue recognition from Jade Residences and Whitehaven, as well as absence of revenue recognition from LIV on Sophia following the completion of these projects. The decrease was partially offset by higher revenue recognition on construction progress of Trilive.
Revenue from the group’s hotel ownership segment fell by 8.4% to $10.9 million in 2Q17, from $11.9 million a year ago. This was main attributable to lower revenue per available room (RevPAR) from Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy.
Revenue from its property investment segment held steady at $3.1 million, up marginally from $3.0 million a year ago.
Cash and cash equivalents stood at $223.9 million as at June 30.
Roxy-Pacific has declared an interim dividend of 0.214 cent for the period. This is less than half of the interim dividend of 0.503 cent a year ago.
The dividend will be payable on Aug 25.
“While the operating environment has been challenging for property developers, we take comfort in our resilient performance brought about by our sustained efforts to balance our asset portfolio,” says Teo Hong Lim, Roxy-Pacific’s executive chairman and CEO.
“Recognising the market downcycle, we exercised prudence and took the opportunity to invest in our future growth by replenishing our land bank – freehold sites from the secondary market – at reasonable prices to protect our margins,” Teo adds. “We remain focused to execute these pipeline projects this year and in FY2018.”
Shares in Roxy-Pacific closed 1 cent lower at 52.5 cents on Monday.