HERSING Corporation yesterday reported record profit and turnover figures for the first six months of the year as its real-estate brokerage arm marketed a whopping 13,800 properties worth $10 billion.
Mr Chua: 'We were kept very busy through the first half of 2007, marketing over $10 billion worth of properties - with $2 billion just from new project launches alone.'
Hersing, whose subsidiary ERA Realty is a major player in the real estate scene in Singapore, said that net profit for the first half ended June 30, 2007, rose six times to $9.7 million from $1.6 million a year ago.
Total revenue rose 135.2 per cent to $96.5 million, from $41 million last year.
Earnings per share rose to 4.36 cents, from 0.83 cents a year ago. The company announced an interim dividend of one cent a share.
Hersing attributed the strong showing mainly to its real-estate brokerage business.
'We were kept very busy through the first half of 2007, marketing over $10 billion worth of properties - with $2 billion just from new project launches alone,' said Harry Chua, Hersing's founder and chairman. Major projects the company marketed include One Shenton, Trillium and Seafront on Meyer.
Hersing's real-estate operations contributed $83.3 million to turnover and $9.6 million to profit before tax.
The 13,800 properties, sold for some $10 billion over the first six months of the year by ERA, earned Hersing over $80 million in commissions - the highest-ever in ERA's 25-year history, said Jack Chua, Hersing's executive director.
The company's financial services and self-storage businesses also did well, he said.
Hersing's Western Union financial services franchise profit before tax rose 37.1 per cent to $1.3 million year-on-year, while its StorHub self-storage business' profit before tax rose 32.6 per cent to $0.8 million.
Going forward, as developers are expected to slow the pace of new launches in the second half of 2007, Hersing expects revenue and profit performance from its real-estate brokerage business to be 'satisfactory but moderated in comparison to the first half of the year', it said.
The financial services and self-storage operations are, however, expected to maintain steady performance.
Hersing's shares closed unchanged at 51 cents yesterday. The stock has climbed 205.9 per cent since the start of the year.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Singapore group spins off hospitals into trust
ASIA's second-biggest publicly traded operator of hospitals, Parkway Holdings, will price shares in its real estate investment trust at $S1.28 each to raise $S369.8 million ($284.2 million) in a stock sale.
Parkway Life Real Estate Investment Trust, which will hold the company's three hospitals in Singapore, is pricing the 288.9 million shares near the top end of the $S1 to $S1.34 range announced last month. The company told the Monetary Authority of Singapore it was raising funds to invest in health-care assets in Asia.
"The Asian health-care industry is expected to grow due to factors such as strong economic growth, rising personal income, increased awareness and expectation towards health-care," the company said in the filing. The trust will offer a yield of 4.9 per cent for 2008, and 5 per cent for 2009.
Parkway Life REIT joins 17 other real estate investment trusts in Singapore, a market valued at $18 billion. The trust will be the second REIT in Singapore that has hospitals in its portfolio, after PT Lippo Karawaci's share sale for its First REIT, which owns three Indonesian hospitals and a country club.
Parkway said it would hold at least 30.1 per cent of the trust after the REIT goes public. It said last month that it wanted to acquire hospitals and clinics in markets such as China, Vietnam and India.
The REIT's shares start trading on the Singapore exchange on August 23. Shares of Singapore-listed Parkway Holdings have risen 18 per cent this year, compared with a 12 per cent gain in the Straits Times Index.
The shares, at $S3.74, up S6c yesterday, have a gross yield of 2.4 per cent.
Parkway Life Real Estate Investment Trust, which will hold the company's three hospitals in Singapore, is pricing the 288.9 million shares near the top end of the $S1 to $S1.34 range announced last month. The company told the Monetary Authority of Singapore it was raising funds to invest in health-care assets in Asia.
"The Asian health-care industry is expected to grow due to factors such as strong economic growth, rising personal income, increased awareness and expectation towards health-care," the company said in the filing. The trust will offer a yield of 4.9 per cent for 2008, and 5 per cent for 2009.
Parkway Life REIT joins 17 other real estate investment trusts in Singapore, a market valued at $18 billion. The trust will be the second REIT in Singapore that has hospitals in its portfolio, after PT Lippo Karawaci's share sale for its First REIT, which owns three Indonesian hospitals and a country club.
Parkway said it would hold at least 30.1 per cent of the trust after the REIT goes public. It said last month that it wanted to acquire hospitals and clinics in markets such as China, Vietnam and India.
The REIT's shares start trading on the Singapore exchange on August 23. Shares of Singapore-listed Parkway Holdings have risen 18 per cent this year, compared with a 12 per cent gain in the Straits Times Index.
The shares, at $S3.74, up S6c yesterday, have a gross yield of 2.4 per cent.
SINGAPORE'S economy grew at the fastest pace in two years in the second quarter as an influx of bankers helped fuel the construction of offices
SINGAPORE'S economy grew at the fastest pace in two years in the second quarter as an influx of bankers helped fuel the construction of offices and apartments.
Gross domestic product expanded an annualised 14.4 per cent in the three months to June, up from a revised 8.8 per cent pace in the first quarter, the Trade Ministry said. That was more than the Government's July 10 estimate of 12.8 per cent and the 12.4 per cent median forecast in a Bloomberg survey.
The success of the Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, in attracting companies - including Citigroup and Daiwa Securities - to expand operations or set up new ones is spurring the property and construction industries. The Government has raised its estimate for growth three times this year, as building activity and financial services shield the economy from a slowdown in electronics manufacturing.
"The key drivers of construction and financial services are spurring growth beyond expectations, and picking up the slack from manufacturing," Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Group Holdings in Singapore, said. "Growth is more broad-based and making Singapore more resilient to volatile global cycles."
Singapore's construction industry expanded 17.6 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier, accelerating from a revised 12 per cent in the first three months of 2007, according to Friday's Trade Ministry report.
From a year earlier, Singapore's $US134 billion ($159 billion) economy expanded 8.6 per cent in the second quarter after gaining 6.4 per cent in the previous three months. Economists were expecting 8 per cent growth.
The economy will grow between 7 and 8 per cent in 2007, the Prime Minister said in a televised speech on Wednesday. The Government had earlier estimated an expansion of as much as 7 per cent this year, after growth of 7.9 per cent last year.
"The driving factors underpinning the higher growth forecast are strong global demand in the biomedical, aerospace and marine industries, robust regional demand for financial services and a buoyant domestic property market," the Trade Ministry said on Friday.
Singapore is encouraging financial services companies to set up offices to develop the island as a hub from which banks and asset managers can serve clients across Asia, including India, China and the Middle East.
The Government has shaved 8 percentage points off the corporate tax rate since 2000 to be more attractive to investors, and was voted the most business-friendly economy by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation this year.
Gross domestic product expanded an annualised 14.4 per cent in the three months to June, up from a revised 8.8 per cent pace in the first quarter, the Trade Ministry said. That was more than the Government's July 10 estimate of 12.8 per cent and the 12.4 per cent median forecast in a Bloomberg survey.
The success of the Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, in attracting companies - including Citigroup and Daiwa Securities - to expand operations or set up new ones is spurring the property and construction industries. The Government has raised its estimate for growth three times this year, as building activity and financial services shield the economy from a slowdown in electronics manufacturing.
"The key drivers of construction and financial services are spurring growth beyond expectations, and picking up the slack from manufacturing," Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Group Holdings in Singapore, said. "Growth is more broad-based and making Singapore more resilient to volatile global cycles."
Singapore's construction industry expanded 17.6 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier, accelerating from a revised 12 per cent in the first three months of 2007, according to Friday's Trade Ministry report.
From a year earlier, Singapore's $US134 billion ($159 billion) economy expanded 8.6 per cent in the second quarter after gaining 6.4 per cent in the previous three months. Economists were expecting 8 per cent growth.
The economy will grow between 7 and 8 per cent in 2007, the Prime Minister said in a televised speech on Wednesday. The Government had earlier estimated an expansion of as much as 7 per cent this year, after growth of 7.9 per cent last year.
"The driving factors underpinning the higher growth forecast are strong global demand in the biomedical, aerospace and marine industries, robust regional demand for financial services and a buoyant domestic property market," the Trade Ministry said on Friday.
Singapore is encouraging financial services companies to set up offices to develop the island as a hub from which banks and asset managers can serve clients across Asia, including India, China and the Middle East.
The Government has shaved 8 percentage points off the corporate tax rate since 2000 to be more attractive to investors, and was voted the most business-friendly economy by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation this year.
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