SINGAPORE - Real estate and construction group Koh Brothers chalked up a 3 per cent rise in third quarter net profit to $7.1 million.

Revenue for the three months to Sept 30 dipped by 7 per cent to $82.2 million, mainly due to lower revenue generated from the construction and building materials division. Gross profit increased by 43 per cent to $15.8 million, primarily due to a general improvement in margins for the real estate and construction and building materials divisions.

Share of results of joint venture companies recorded a loss of $1.2 million. This was mainly due to lower contribution from a property that is currently undertaking an asset enhancement exercise.

Earnings per share inched up to 1.61 cents from 1.5 cents previously while net asset value per share climbed to 54.2 cents compared to 48.97 cents as at Dec 31.

Although the Building and Construction Authority has estimated more demand to be generated in construction from the public sector in 2014, Koh Brothers expects the industry to be challenging given the tight labour situation and more stringent regulatory controls.

"With the various property cooling measures still in place, we expect prices in the residential property market to further moderate in 2014," it noted.