Huaku Development Co (華固建設), which earned more than NT$10 per share last year, yesterday reported a net loss for the first quarter, as the absence of new-project completion for the quarter pushed down sales significantly.
The company may see continual losses this quarter, before swinging into profit next quarter when the company is set to book a large project upon completion, analysts said.
Huaku said it suffered a net loss of NT$79.68 million (US$2.64 million) in the first three months of the year, compared with a net income of NT$3.13 billion a year ago.
The results translate into a net loss per share of NT$0.29 in the first quarter, a substantial decline from earnings per share of NT$11.27 in the same period last year, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
In the January-to-March period, the company saw a huge year-over-year sales dip of 95.22 percent to NT$392.83 million, while gross margin also fell to 29.96 percent from 40.17 percent over the period, the filing showed.
Despite weak market sentiment, the company aims to generate sales from several luxury projects and low-priced surface rights projects this year, with current residential housing products including the NT$4 billion “Huacheng” project in New Taipei City’s Xindian District (新店) and the NT$5 billion “Songjiang” project in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山).
Upcoming products include the NT$5 billion “Mansion” project in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), the NT$12 billion “Sky Garden” project in Tianmu District (天母), as well as the NT$12 billion “New World” project, in which Huaku signed a 70-year leasehold contract with the Ministry of Finance last year to develop a plot of state-owned land in Taipei’s Jingmei District (景美) into a housing complex.
“We expect the Huaku Songjiang project with its high selling price and high gross margin to be delivered and booked in the fourth quarter, which will in turn substantially boost monthly sales and earnings, making the fourth quarter the earnings peak this year,” Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) analyst Chen Yen-liang (陳彥良) said before the release of Huaku’s latest sales results.
Shares in Huaku rose 0.14 percent to NT$74.1 yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. They have dropped 12 percent since the beginning of the year.
The building material and construction sub-index — which reflects the general performance of property stocks — has underperformed the broader market by 9.58 percent so far this year, as investors have taken note of recent government policies to tackle high housing prices ahead of the year-end elections.
On Wednesday, Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) told the legislature’s Finance Committee that soaring home prices in the greater Taipei area may have finally started to dip, which indicates a positive sign of a cooling-down in the market that will discourage people from speculation.
Prices in Taipei have “dropped about 5 percent,” and those in New Taipei City have dropped “less than 5 percent,” Chang said, though he did not specify a basis of comparison.
“Macro and political headwinds against the property sector may persist until the election concludes,” PrimAsia Securities Co (犇亞證券) analyst Kai Chen said in a note. “Therefore, investors should be selective and cautious toward the sector.”
Additional reporting by CNA
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