Singapore Land, an office landlord that also owns a majority stake in the Marina Square development, yesterday reported a 25 per cent year-on-year jump in first-quarter group net earnings to $28.13 million.

This helped give a 30 per cent fillip to its parent United Industrial Corp’s net profit for the same period to $22.1 million.

SingLand said its total revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2007 declined 12 per cent to $44.99 million due to the absence of $13.8 million sales recorded in the year-ago period for The Paterson and Stevens Loft residential projects, which were fully sold in 2006.

However, gross rental income increased 22 per cent to $43.7 million. SingLand owns a portfolio of office blocks including Singapore Land Tower, The Gateway and Clifford Centre and part of SGX Centre. SingLand said yesterday its 53 per cent-owned subsidiary Marina Centre Holdings (MCH) achieved a higher Q1 net profit.

The subsidiary fully owns the Marina Square mall and - under a deal announced late last month - the Pan Pacific Singapore hotel.

It also has a 50 per cent interest in the two other hotels in the complex, Marina Mandarin Singapore and The Oriental Singapore.

SingLand’s Q1 earnings per share rose to 6.8 cents from 5.5 cents a year earlier. Net asset value per share at March 31, 2007 was $7.56, up six cents from the figure a year ago.

UIC’s Q1 revenue rose 9 per cent to $81.1 million, chiefly due to a 19 per cent increase in rental income.

Earnings per share rose from 1.2 cents to 1.6 cents. Net asset value per share rose from $1.77 at Dec 31, 2006 to $1.79 at March 31, 2007.

Source: The Business Times, 25 April 2007