SINGAPORE (May 14): Banyan Tree Holdings saw its earnings surge to $20.2 million for the 1Q ended March, from $1.2 million a year ago.
This was mainly due to the one-off gain of $16.1 million from the dilution of the group’s interest in Banyan Tree Assets (China) Holdings (BTAC) from 50% to 22.8%.
1Q18 revenue rose 9% to $98.2 million, from $90.4 million a year ago.
This was mainly due to higher revenue from its Property Sales segment on the completion of Cassia Bintan (Phase 2) and Cassia Phuket (Phase 2) condominiums, as well as from its Hotel Investments segment on the back of contributions from its hotels in Thailand and Seychelles.
In addition, the group saw higher write-back of provision for doubtful debts and lower foreign exchange losses during the quarter, as well as higher share of profits recorded by associates and joint ventures.
As at end March, cash and cash equivalents stood at $158.9 million.
The group’s Property Sales segment has unrecognised revenue of $209.8 million as at Mar 31, 2018 – some 47% higher than a year ago. Banyan Tree says about 30% of this will be progressively recognised in the next few quarters of 2018.
On the Hotel Investments front, the group says overall forward bookings is 2% higher than a year ago, based on hotel forward bookings for owned hotels for 2Q18.
Shares of Banyan Tree closed flat at 59.5 cents on Monday.
