Keppel Land’s property trading profit plunged 34.6% in September

Blame it on higher tax expenses.

Keppel Land barely left the headlines last quarter, after its lauded moves to divest its stake in Prudential Tower and sell Equity Plaza. But the gains from these big-ticket deals were not enough to lift Keppel Land’s profits in Q3, which were dragged down by substantially higher tax expenses.

According to Keppel Land, its net profit stood at $308 million for the first nine months of 2014, down marginally by 3.3%. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Keppel Land’s net profit stood at $113m in Q3 compared to $126.4 in Q413.

Profit from property trading fell by 34.6% y-o-y to $135.9 million for the first nine months of 2014, on back of lower contributions from Singapore and China projects as well as an absence of tax write-back.

Profit from property investment rose by 1.2% y-o-y to $92.5 million due to increased contribution from Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3 (MBFC Tower 3) and share of Keppel REIT’s gain from divestment of Prudential Tower. Property investment’s share of net profit rose to 34.4% compared with 29% for the same period last year.
“The gain from the sale of Equity Plaza and a share of Keppel REIT’s gain from the divestment of its 92.8% stake in Prudential Tower was partly offset by a loss of $20.3 million arising from the dilution of interest in Keppel REIT and higher tax expense. Net profit would have been higher by 7% if not for a tax write-back of $30.7 million in the same period in 2013,” noted Keppel Land.