KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 27): UEM Sunrise Bhd said fourth quarter net profit fell 29% to RM37.66 million from RM53.29 million a year earlier on higher expenses and taxes besides lower contribution from associates and joint ventures.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia today, UEM Sunrise said group revenue rose to RM748.12 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (4QFY17) from RM624.66 million.

For the full year, UEM Sunrise said FY17 net profit climbed to RM280.09 million from RM147.3 million a year earlier while revenue was higher at RM2.9 billion versus RM1.84 billion.

"The group recorded higher revenue in the current quarter (4QFY17) as compared to the preceding year's corresponding period mainly due to higher property development revenue from the progress made by international projects, namely Aurora and Conservatory and the sale of completed units from the group's inventory monetisation campaign. The group also completed sale of land in Iskandar Puteri, Johor in the current quarter.

"For the current quarter, the effective tax rate (excluding share of results of associates and joint ventures) is higher than the statutory tax rate mainly due to higher tax rate at Australia, unrecognised deferred tax asset and non-deductible expenses. In addition, for the cumulative period, it includes the withholding tax on foreign source of income and higher tax rate at Canada.

"The group takes cognisant of the soft market ahead and remains cautious of the challenging property market environment. It plans to remain prudent in its targets for 2018 despite exceeding its sales target of RM1.2 billion, achieving close to RM1.5 billion in 2017, and surpassing its gross development value target of RM1.7 billion with launches of RM2.0 billion," UEM Sunrise said.