Aiden He

Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) saw its underlying profit go up by 17.5 percent to HK$10.5 billion in the second half of 2024 and declared an interim dividend of 95 HK cents, same as that from 12 months ago.

This increase was primarily driven by higher recognized profits from property development, lower finance costs, and gains from the disposal of investment properties and land resumption, which was partly offset by a slight decline in property rental income and impairment provision for development properties, the company said in a filing yesterday.

The developer incurred a fair value loss of HK$2.04 billion for its investment properties, in stark contrast to a gain of HK$432 million for the same period last year.

Net profit, which included the revaluation changes, fell by 17.7 percent year-on-year to HK$7.5 billion.

Total revenue of SHKP for the six-month period jumped by 45 percent to HK$39.9 billion.

The developer earned HK$2.5 billion from property sales, representing an increase of 22.8 percent from a year earlier.

Contracted sales during the period totaled about HK$25.5 billion, SHKP said.

Gross rental income decreased by 1 percent to HK$12.3 billion while net rental income fell by 3 percent to HK$9 billion.

It had a land bank of 56.9 million square feet as of the end of December. Of these, about 37.6 million sq ft were diversified completed properties, an overwhelming majority of which were for rental and long-term investment purposes, the builder said.

Some 12.9 million square feet of the remainder were residential properties under development for sale, which will be adequate to meet its development needs over the medium term, the filing said.

SHKP held land reserves of 66.4 million sq ft in the mainland, including most of the 21.2 million sq ft completed properties for rental and long-term investment purposes.

It expects to recognize contracted sales of HK$28.5 billion in the first half of this year.

SHKP's underlying net rises 17pc to $10.5b