CapitaMalls Asia 2011 profit up 25.7% to S$250.6mn

The company’s secondary listing in Hong Kong reinforces growth prospects in China.

CapitaMalls Asia Limited announced Wednesday that it posted profit after tax and minority interests (“PATMI”) of S$250.6 million (HK$1,506.8 million) for the first nine months of 2011 (year-to-date 2011, or “YTD 2011”), a 25.7% increase over the S$199.3 million (HK$1,198.5 million) in the first nine months of 2010 (year-to-date 2010, or “YTD 2010”).

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were S$324.7 million (HK$1,952.7 million) for YTD 2011, a 35.4% increase over the S$239.8 million (HK$1,442.3 million) for YTD 2010. This was underpinned by recurring EBIT (excluding revaluations) of about S$171.0 million (HK$1,028.3 million) for both its Singapore and Malaysia operations for YTD 2011, according to a CapitaMalls Asia report.

Mr Liew Mun Leong, Chairman of CapitaMalls Asia, said, “Despite the uncertain global economy, Asia remains a growth region. Our key markets of Singapore, China and Malaysia are all expected to post economic growth in 2011 – about 5.0% for Singapore, 9.5% for China, and between 5.0% and 5.5% for Malaysia. Retail sales also continue to grow in all three markets, and this bodes well for our portfolio of well-located and mainly suburban malls catering to necessity shopping.”

“We are pleased to have our secondary listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong yesterday (Tuesday).This will widen our investor base and raise our profile in China, augmenting our growth in the country and making us more attractive to investors both in Hong Kong and China.”

Mr Lim Beng Chee, CEO of CapitaMalls Asia, said, “Shopper traffic in our malls in Singapore grew 2.9% in the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period last year. More importantly, our tenants’ sales grew even faster in the same period, at 6.7%. This shows that the additional shoppers we attract to our malls are spending more at our tenants’ shops. Our Singapore malls also have an occupancy rate of more than 96.0%, which is higher than the industry average.”

“In China, our malls achieved 20.6% growth in Net Property Income on a same-mall basis in the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period last year. This came on the back of strong growth in tenants’ sales and shopper traffic, which increased 13.3% and 8.4% respectively in the first nine months of this year. We acquired the remaining stakes in two malls in Shanghai – Minhang Plaza and Hongkou Plaza – and also announced our maiden project in Suzhou to develop the largest shopping mall in the city.”

“We continued to build our industry-leading network of 10,000 leases in the region by organising the inaugural Retail Global Connexion 2011 in Singapore last week, following the success of our inaugural Retailers’ Forum in Chengdu in May. The Retail Global Connexion was attended by more than 500 international and Singapore retailers and another 500 Singapore tertiary students. The successful retailers who spoke at the forum were the bosses of Desigual, Daiso, Country Style Cooking, Awfully Chocolate, Eu Yan Sang, Jeric Salon and Soo Kee Group.”

“These forums showcase our retailers and provide them with additional opportunities to meet new investors, business partners, including franchisees, and potential employees. They also highlight to our retailers our competitive advantage in helping them expand to our malls in the other countries that we are present in, for our mutual growth. We will continue to explore ways to add value to our retailers to help them grow, as their success is fundamental to our long-term success.”