Rowsley's Q1 earnings jump 70% on fair value adjustment

SINGAPORE - Rowsley has reported a 70 per cent jump in net profit to $3.1 million for the first quarter.

Group revenue, however, fell by a quarter to $16.3 million for the three months to March 31, mainly due to a decline in contribution from architectural services of about $7.4 million.

This was partially offset by higher revenue from civil and structural engineering services of $1.3 million and master planning services of $700,000.

Other income more than doubled to $7.7 million from $3.6 million after fair value adjustment of $4.1 million from the re-measurement of shares to be paid to the RSP vendors.

Earnings per share rose to 0.07 cent from 0.04 cent previously while net asset value per share eased to 11.66 cents compared to 11.78 cents as at Dec 31.

Looking ahead, Rowsley said notwithstanding the current property market sentiments in Iskandar, it remains optimistic about the long-term fundamentals of the Johor mega project and believes that Iskandar will continue to attract foreign investments in areas such as manufacturing, oil and gas, media, education and tourism, and with these, an increasing population.

Furthermore, it believes its 75-storey residential project, Skies at Vantage Bay, Johor, is a superior product with strong value propositions and the group is confident that the market will receive the project favourably when launched.

In Singapore, Rowsley noted the last set of property cooling measures introduced by the Government continues to be in place and has slowed down the residential housing market.

However, Singapore residential projects currently contribute only about 18 per cent of subsidiary RSP's total revenues.

"RSP has continued to build up a strong order book in 2015 with new projects in Singapore and across the region in China, Vietnam and Myanmar."

Here, it is participating in the high profile Project Jewel to expand Singapore's Changi Airport.

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