Metro’s net profit crashes 73.4% to $9.8m

Scrapped department stores and office buildings pulled earnings down.

After closing major businesses, Metro Holdings Limited’s net profit plummeted to a disappointing $9.8 million in 1QFY17 ended 30 June 2016 against $37.6 million in 1QFY16.

Metro revealed that the hefty plunge was due to lower turnover post-shutdown of its Metro Sengkang and Metro City Square businesses in the second and third quarter of FY16 respectively, pulling the whole retail division’s revenue down by $10 million to $30.2 million in the current period.

Metro Centrepoint’s lower operating losses as well as overall marginal profitability upturn of department stores in Indonesia both failed to stop the group’s result from crashing.

On top of this, the property division’s revenue slipped to $1.7 million in 1QFY17 from $2.5 million in 1QFY16 as a result of lower rental contribution following the dumping of Frontier Koishikawa, Japan, a year ago, Metro explained.

Group revenue also collapsed 25.4% to S$31.9 million during the quarter compared to S$42.7 million over the same period, it added.