This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 17, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Lower sales dragged Tropicana Corp Bhd’s first-quarter (1Q) revenue down by 53.7% to RM209.77 million from RM453 million a year ago.

In a statement yesterday, the property developer said despite this, its net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 slipped just 0.73% to RM46.06 million from RM46.4 million previously.

“The completion of two development phases at Tropicana Aman in 2018 resulted in higher profit recognition in the said quarter,” it said.

This decrease in revenue, it added, is mainly due to lower sales in the group’s 2018 financial year which had a carry-through effect on the results for the current year.

As at March 31, 2019, Tropicana had total unbilled sales of RM736.9 million and an existing land bank of 1,071 acres (433.42ha) with a total potential gross development value (GDV) of RM48.6 billion.

“Despite the challenging outlook of the property industry due to global and regional economic headwinds, the group believes that there will still be demand for properties in prime locations with attractive pricing.

“The group will still be market-driven and unlock value from its existing land bank at strategic locations in the Klang Valley, Genting and southern regions,” the group said. Tropicana said its future projects’ GDV is about RM3 billion. Tropicana shares declined one sen or 1.16% to 85.5 sen yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM1.26 billion.