Developers confident of second half performance

With most firms having reported financial results for the first six months, the report card shows mixed results, with some firms reporting increases and others decreases from the same period of last year.
Some listed firms focusing on the middle and upper-income markets showed strong growth, while companies that focus on the middle to lower income markets saw declines in net profit.
According to the listed property firms that recently announced their financial result for the first half of this year to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, as of yesterday, six of the top 10 demonstrated net profit growth in the first half compared to the same period of last year. The remaining four companies saw declines in profit.
For example, Land & Houses Plc reported a strong net profit of Bt5.38 billion in the first half of this year, up 16.3 per cent from the same period of last year. Pruksa Holding Plc declared a net profit of Bt2.4 billion in the first half of this year, a drop of 21.1 per cent from the same period of last year.
AP (Thailand) Plc’s chief executive officer Anupong Asavabhokhin said that the company enjoyed strong growth in high net-profit growth in the first half of this year, thanks to a joint venture with Japanese partner Mitsubishi Estate Group that has begun generating sales.
The company also moved its target to the middle and upper income markets, from which there is still strong demand. The company plans to launch 18 residential projects worth Bt28.75 billion in the second half of this year, he said.
SC Asset Corporation’s chief executive officer, Nuttaphong Kunakornwong, said that although the company recorded a Bt339.6 million net profit in the first half of this year, a drop of 75 per cent from the same period of last year, it plans to launch nine residential projects worth Bt11.45 billion before the end of this year. That would boost its full-year presales to Bt16 billion and revenue to Bt14.8 billion, Nuttaphong said.
He expected that the second half of the year will see more government investment to develop the country’s infrastructure, as domestic household debt is still at a worrisome level and is handicapping the expansion of real estate development this year.
Golden Land Property Development plans to launch 10 new residential projects in the second half of this year, worth more than Bt10 billion combined. This will boost its sales in the second half, the company’s managing director Saenphin Sukhee said. “We are confident the property market will strongly recover in the second half of this year,” he added.