THE absence of contribution from property development dragged third-quarter net profit at Popular Holdings down by 4 per cent to $11.7 million.

Turnover for the three months ended Jan 31 also fell, by 8 per cent to $152.8 million.

The book retailer and developer said that it registered no turnover for the property development division during the quarter, compared to $6.3 million in the same period last year.

Revenue contribution from the retail and distribution segment was also lower, by $7.2 million.

Other operating income, however, grew by 21 per cen to $1 million due to rental income from Book Fair while lower other operating expenses were mainly due to a fall in general and miscellaneous expenses.

For the nine months to Jan 31, net profit fell by 24 per cent to $20 million on the back of an 8 per cent drop in turnover to $393.2 million.

During this period, Popular opened 11 new retail outlets and closed three, taking its total outlets to 156. It has 75 outlets in Malaysia and 64 in Singapore. Another 17 are located in Hong Kong.

Quarterly earnings per share eased to 1.4 cents from 1.44 cents previously while net asset value per share climbed to 26.66 cents compared to 25.09 cents as of April 30.