Continental Holdings Corp (CHC, 欣陸投控) yesterday said property sales now take longer as buyers have turned cautious amid monetary tightening and economic uncertainty.
The conglomerate made the comment after reporting record-high net profit of NT$2.18 billion (US$72.69 million) for the first half of this year, up 171 percent from the same period last year.
The results translated into earnings per share of NT$2.65, also a new high for the same period, CHC said.
Photo courtesy of Continental Holdings Corp
Consolidated revenue totaled NT$18.26 billion in the first six months, up from NT$11.94 billion a year earlier, while gross margin improved by 3.53 percentage points to 18.18 percent, it said.
The conglomerate said it saw contributions from all of its major subsidiaries, namely Continental Development Corp (CDC, 大陸建設), Continental Engineering Corp (CEC, 大陸工程) and HDEC Corp (欣達環工).
CDC, the conglomerate’s real-estate development arm, reported the biggest advance after selling all remaining units at a luxury residential complex in Taipei’s prime Xinyi District (信義), CHC chief executive officer Cindy Chang (張方欣) told an online investors’ conference.
CDC would generate less profit going forward as buyers prefer to slow down in making decisions over concerns of unfavorable economic twists, Chang said.
HDEC, the conglomerate’s environmental project development and water treatment business unit, also saw business expand rapidly, thanks to an increase in reclaimed water use, Chang said, adding that heavy industrial users have raised their dependence on reclaimed water.
Chang attributed the growing contribution from CEC, the construction engineering business unit, mainly to construction projects from private and public sectors such as the Taipei MRT Wanda Line and the Taoyuan MRT Green Line.
The conglomerate said it maintains a healthy level of backlog on hand.
As of June 30, backlog at its construction engineering business amounted to NT$73.8 billion, while the level of backlog at its real-estate development segment was NT$14.6 billion, it said.
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