SINGAPORE (Feb 28): Real estate agency APAC Realty, which operates the ERA brand, has announced a 48.1% drop in earnings to $4.1 million for the 4Q18 ended December, from $7.9 million a year ago, on the back of lower revenue.
This bring full-year earnings to $24.2 million for FY18, 6.4% lower than earnings of $25.9 million a year ago.
Total revenue fell 36.9% to $81.9 million in 4Q18, from $129.7 million a year ago.
This was mainly due to a 30.5% decrease in brokerage income from resale and rental of properties to $56.1 million in 4Q18, and a 49.7% decline in brokerage income from new home sales to $23.5 million during the quarter.
Earnings per share (EPS) fell to 1.15 cents for 4Q18, from 2.22 cents in 4Q17.
Net asset value (NAV) per share rose 7.5% to 40.3 cents as at Dec 31, 2018, from 37.5 cents a year ago.
As at end December, cash and cash equivalents stood at $43.0 million.
APAC Realty has proposed a second and final dividend of 2.5 cents per share for the current period, 25% higher than the final dividend of 2.0 cents declared a year ago.
Including the interim dividend of 2.0 cents per share paid earlier, this brings the total dividend for FY18 to 4.5 cents per share, representing a 66% dividend payout and a 7.7% dividend yield.
“Over the past year, we made several timely and significant moves to diversify our business and solidify our position as the real estate agency of choice in Asia-Pacific,” says Jack Chua, executive director and chief executive officer of APAC Realty.
“With Singapore’s real estate market expected to remain stable into the mid-term, we have taken strategic steps to tap into overseas growth opportunities to create additional income streams and enhance our resilience through market cycles,” he adds.
In February, the group acquired ERA Indonesia, a property brokerage pioneer in Indonesia with an estimated market share of approximately 10% of Indonesia’s secondary property market and a network of more than 6,900 salespersons across its 103 offices.
In the same month, APAC Realty entered into a cooperation agreement which allowed the group to take direct ownership of ERA Thailand and to expand its real estate brokerage and franchise operations in the country.
Moving ahead, APAC Realty says underlying demand for residential properties in Singapore is likely to continue to be affected by the additional property cooling measures imposed in July last year.
It adds that the Singapore economy may be affected by adverse global economic conditions, uncertainty in the US-China trade relations and changes in mortgage interest rates.
Shares in APAC Realty closed 1.5 cent lower, or down 2.6%, at 57 cents on Thursday.
