Third-quarter earnings at Perennial Real Estate Holdings plunged 91.1 per cent due to higher interest expenses and the absence of one-off investment income posted a year earlier.

The property and healthcare group yesterday reported a net profit of $425,000 for the three months ended Sept 30 - a sharp drop from the $4.8 million in the same period a year earlier.

This was even as revenue jumped 53.2 per cent to $35.1 million, driven largely by the strata sales of office space at TripleOne Somerset, though partly offset by lower rental revenue from the same development as expiring leases were not renewed in preparation for the asset enhancement works and strata sales.

Net profit for the nine months sank 44.1 per cent to $9.5 million while revenue dipped 0.7 per cent to $88.7 million.

Net finance costs for the quarter grew by 13.9 per cent to $15.1 million, as more loans were taken to finance new investments, some of which have started to provide new income streams to the group.

Earnings per share came in at 0.03 cent, down from 0.29 cent previously. Net asset value per share stood at $1.57 as at Sept 30, lower than $1.688 at Dec 31 last year.

Perennial said that it expects its operations to face challenges in the near term, given the weak economic outlook and slower growth in China as well as lacklustre business sentiment in Singapore.

The shares closed 1.5 cents lower at 82.5 cents yesterday.