Perennial Real Estate Holdings' profits surge to $73m for the first nine months of 2017

Its acquisition of a stake in United Engineers led the boost in earnings.

Perennial Real Estate Holdings' (PREH) profits for the nine months of 2017 surged by 711.11% YoY to $73m, up from $9m last year.

According to DBS Equity Research, this was boosted by share of a gain on a bargain purchase of United Engineers (UE) of S$19m and gains recognised in 1H17. PREH gained $56m from the sale of 20.2% stakes and $46m from the revaluation from the reclassification of Xi’an North High Speed railway Integrated Development Plot 4 to investment property. Profit for Q3 rose to S$17m from $0.4m last year.

Revenue for 9M fell 34% YoY largely due to lower rental and management fees from TripleOne Somerset following the divestment, partially offset by the divestment fee from the sale of TripleOne Somerset and higher revenue recorded by Perennial Qinyang Mall in Chengdu.

The share of results from associate surged 85% YoY to $35m largely from the $26m gain on bargain purchase of UE.

In Q3, Singapore and China remained PREH's two largest markets. Singapore contributed 91% in earnings, whilst China contributed 18%.