PropNex second-half profit down 27.1% to $25.8 million

SINGAPORE – PropNex reported a 27.1 per cent fall in net profit for the half year ended December 2023 to $25.8 million, from $35.3 million in the corresponding period a year earlier.

This came as revenue dropped 14.9 per cent to $473.8 million, based on the real estate agency’s results released on Feb 28.

Earnings per share stood at 3.48 cents for the half year, down from 4.78 cents in the previous year.

The company proposed a final dividend of 3.5 cents per share, bringing total dividend to six cents a share for financial year 2023. This represents a payout ratio of 92.9 per cent of net attributable profit and a dividend yield of 6.5 per cent, based on the share price as at Dec 31, 2023.

The dividend will be paid on May 10, after books’ closure on May 2.

For the full year, net profit was down 23.3 per cent to $47.8 million, while revenue declined 18.6 per cent to $838.1 million. This was led by a fewer number of transactions completed for both agency and project marketing services.

Commission income from agency services dropped 7.7 per cent to $591.1 million, while commission income from project marketing services fell 36.9 per cent to $242.3 million in financial year 2023.

Mr Ismail Gafoor, executive chairman and chief executive officer of PropNex, noted that despite the second-half revenue and net profit registering growth compared with the first-half, they were not enough to compensate for the caution by prospective home buyers amid recent cooling measures, high interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainties.

“I believe our FY2023 performance was resilient in this context as we retained our strong foothold in the residential market, capturing an overall 62.5 per cent share of the private new launches, private resale and HDB resale segments,” he added.

Shares of PropNex were trading down 0.5 cent, or 0.6 per cent, at 89 cents as at 9.26am on Feb 28, after its earnings’ announcement.

THE BUSINESS TIMES