Wing Tai Full-Year Income Soars To $382m

Source : The Straits Times, Aug 30, 2007

PROPERTY and retail group Wing Tai Holdings almost tripled its full- year net profit to $382 million on sparkling home sales and revaluation gains.

Revenue grew 10 per cent to $982 million.

Wing Tai proposed a one-for-10 rights issue at a price of $2.05 a share - a discount of 41 per cent - as well as a special rights dividend of 25 cents per share, on top of the final dividend of three cents per share and a special dividend of five cents per share.

A revaluation of assets - mainly of its Winsland House property - alone lifted Wing Tai's income by $189 million.

More income was also booked from homes sold in its developments - Draycott Eight, Kovan Melody, The Light@Cairnhill and Amaryllis Ville.

The company sold 1,311 homes worth $1.79 billion in Singapore in the 12 months ended June 30. It sold a further 313 units worth $219 million in Malaysia, Hong Kong and China.

Among its projects under development or completed, Wing Tai has only 30 unsold units in VisionCrest Residence in Oxley Rise and 70 left among the 140 units in Helios Residences in Cairnhill Circle.

The company has residential projects covering one million sq ft of floor area in the pipeline in Singapore, including Belle Vue Residences in Oxley Walk and L'viv in Newton Road, and a further 11.3 million sq ft in Malaysia and China.

It aims to launch most of these within the next 12 to 18 months.

Earnings per share grew from 17.84 cents last year to 53.12 cents, while net asset value per share grew 30 per cent to 2.07 cents.

Chairman Cheng Wai Keung did not appear too concerned yesterday when asked if the impending tightening of rules on collective sales would affect the company's prospects.

He said the rules would lengthen the procedure for collective sales, increasing the risk that developers face.

Developers who cannot buy enough land will find it hard to expand, but Wing Tai is in a 'reasonable position', he said.

Mr Cheng added that the subprime crisis in the United States had temporarily affected the take- up rate of properties.

'But it's actually not a bad thing,' he said, adding that the prices of high-end homes had risen very fast over the past few months and that the market needed some consolidation.

Mr Cheng believes that there is still room for property prices to grow if the US sub-prime crisis resolves itself within 'a reasonable period of time'.

He said Singapore's economy is performing well, and property prices here are lagging behind in cities with similar developments.