SINGAPORE - Lower finance costs, higher development profits from China and more contributions from its shopping malls business boosted second-quarter earnings at property giant CapitaLand.

Net profit grew 14.5 per cent to $438.7 million in the three months to June 30 from the previous year, it said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Tuesday.

This was even though revenue slid 13.2 per cent from the preceding year to $875.3 million in the period.

Mr Lim Ming Yan, president and group chief executive of CapitaLand, said in a statement on Tuesday that the firm's "well-balanced portfolio of investment properties and residential projects" helped it post improved results despite the slowdown in the residential markets in Singapore and China.

CapitaLand said that its shopping mall arm, CapitaMalls Asia, will focus on opening new shopping malls in China and India in the coming months while continuing to improve the performance of its existing malls.

Its serviced residence business, Ascott, will continue to grow fee-based income by securing more management contracts to scale up its global network, it added.

For the first half of the year, net profit rose 9.2 per cent from the preceding year to $621.5 million though revenue fell 9.4 per cent to $1.5 billion.

It also named Mr Ng Kok Siong, who is chief financial officer of CapitaMalls Asia, to the post of CapitaLand's chief corporate development officer on Tuesday. This will take effect on Sept 1 and Mr Ng will relinquish his CapitaMalls job.

CapitaLand shares were five cents higher at $3.45 as at around 9.45am on Tuesday.