Profit declined to $10.2 million, or 0.9 cents a share, in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with $224.6 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Singapore stock exchange. Revenue climbed 7 per cent to $239 million, it said on Wednesday.

Parkway Holdings will improve efficiency and cut costs to retain profits as a slowing economy may impair patients' ability to pay for medical services while others may postpone surgeries. The company's shares have declined 53 per cent this year.

'Operating environment for the second half of 2008 is expected to remain challenging,' the company said in the statement. 'Global economic environment and financial market conditions have weakened significantly.'

Earnings in the year-ago quarter were inflated by an exceptional gain of $204.3 million when it sold properties to its real estate investment trust, Parkway Life REIT, the statement said.

Parkway Holdings said its unit Parkway Novena Pte Ltd. secured on July 31 a five-year credit facility of as much as $850 million to partly finance the acquisition of a land and the development of a new hospital in central Singapore.

The company's shares fell 1.8 per cent, to $1.66 on the Singapore stock exchange before earnings were released.