KUALA LUMPUR (March 24)： Despite slowing down in property market, Eco World Development Group Bhd saw its net profit for the first quarter ended Jan 31,2016 (1QFY16) jump 6.76 times to RM20.67 million, from RM3.06 million in the previous year, underpinned by higher revenue and consistent gross profit margin of 24%.

The group’s revenue for 1QFY16, also rose 2.93 times to RM463.51 million, from RM158.03 million a year ago.

The group announced to Bursa Malaysia that the group’s ongoing projects which contributed to the revenue and gross profit achieved include Eco Majestic and Eco Sky in the Klang Valley, Eco Botanic, Eco Spring, Eco Summer and Eco Business Park 1, Eco Tropics and Eco Business Park III in Iskandar Malaysia and Eco Terraces in Penang Island.

The group achieved RM410.7 million sales in 1QFY16 as compared to sales achieved in the 1QFY15 of RM439.9 million.

As at Feb 29, 2016, the group’s year-to-date sales amounted to RM607.8 million, which is broadly in line with the sales achieved in the first four months of FY2015 amounting to RM621.1 million.

In the upcoming quarter, the group targets to launch the Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC) – plans are underway to make this the foremost leisure-tainment destination at the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s retail precinct which will drive demand for the strata offices and serviced apartments comprised within the Phase 1 launch.

On the branding and marketing front the group recognised that its extensive efforts and investment over the last two years to grow its customer database and social media presence have continued to bear fruit.

“This enabled the group to save on marketing costs whilst still achieving the desired effect of attracting more visitors to its project sites to further increase the pool of registrants for future launches,” it said.

At noon, Eco World Development was unchanged at RM1.46, for a market capitalisation of RM3.48 billion.