METRO Holdings will launch its first Singapore residential project in nearly two decades later this year and plans to further expand its footprint in China, it said.

A site at Prince Charles Crescent off Alexandra Road, which Metro is jointly developing with Wing Tai and UE E&C, will go on the market by the end of the third quarter, chairman Winston Choo said at a results briefing on May 29.

The project's ground-breaking is scheduled for June 4 and the developers are looking to launch it at $1,500 psf at least, he said.

The group suffered an 81 per cent plunge in fourth-quarter net profit year-on-year to $14.9 million.

This was mainly because the bottomline in the corresponding period a year earlier was inflated by a one-off gain of $98.7 million from the sale of Metro City Beijing.

Revenue for the three months ended March 31 dipped 1.1 per cent to $47.6 million from the preceding year.

Though retail sales grew 5.8 per cent year-on-year to $32.5 million in the fourth quarter, it was outweighed by a 13.2 per cent fall in property revenue to $15.1 million.

For the full year, earnings tumbled 29.5 per cent year-on-year to $64.8 million while revenue stayed flat at $187.1 million. Higher sales from its retail stores in Singapore and Indonesia offset a decline in rental income from its property arm.

Earnings per share for the year stood at 7.8 cents, down from 11.3 cents the preceding year. Net asset value was $1.383 as at March 31 this year, a slight increase from $1.346 previously.

The company has proposed a final dividend of two cents a share plus a special final dividend of two cents a share.