Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) is focusing this year on digesting unsold residences and projects under construction, chairman Frank Chao (趙文嘉) told a shareholders’ meeting yesterday.
“The company first adopted the strategy last year and would stand by it this year,” Chao said.
The strategy would allow the company to see stable profit growth after last year posting NT$2 billion (US$63.7 million) in net income, he added.
The figures translated into earnings per share of NT$2.42, aided by a 30 increase in revenue to NT$18.6 billion.
Shareholders approved a proposal to distribute NT$3 per share in cash dividend from last year’s earnings, suggesting a payout ratio of 124 percent.
The number of newly completed and unsold houses could reach 100,000 units this year, putting pressure on selling prices in a market that has seen gradual, but slow recovery, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) said, advising developers to be conservative.
Farglory has NT$50 billion worth of unsold houses and partially completed projects on hand in different parts of the nation.
Farglory is revitalizing idle assets and diversifying product offers to boost its proficiency, Chao said.
The Taipei-based company last month sold a 281.63 ping (929.38m2) plot in Kaohsiung to Kaohsiung Transportation Co (高雄客運) for NT$512 million, or NT$1.82 million per ping.
The land was part of an urban renewal bid Farglory made 22 years ago, but it had yet to clear legal obstacles, so the company recently decided to drop the effort, it said.
The company could see profits, mostly in the second half of the year, from five residential complexes, including one in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), two in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和) and one in Taichung’s Cingshuei District (清水), Farglory general manager Tang Chia-feng (湯佳峰) said.
A presale project in Tainan has sold 80 percent just two months after its launch, Tang said.
The company is also seeking to build factory complexes for companies that are moving back to Taiwan from China amid the US-China trade dispute, he said.
Farglory reported NT$785 million in net income for the first quarter of the year, a 40 percent increase from the same period last year, or earnings per share of NT$0.97.
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