The 2008 net profit for Koh Brothers showed a decline from $39.7 million last year to $27.7 million, according to the construction and property group’s report yesterday.
The decline was attributed to the lack of revaluation gain this year. Back in 2007, the revaluation gain was pegged at $39.3 million, which was from investment properties. However, in 2008, there was none. Yet, it was offset by the selling of Changi Hotel for $21.3 million.
For the same period, Koh Brothers also previously had a 24 percent decrease in profits from $285.8 million to $215.8 million. This trend is attributed to the failure of their construction projects to be recognised. Likewise this year, the earnings for every share dropped from 8.28 cents to 5.78 cents.
A special individual share of 0.1 cent and a 0.2 cent final dividend was recommended by the directors for every ordinary share of stockholders. Last year, the company paid out 0.3 cents as a first and final dividend for every share.
Francis Koh, chief executive officer of the company, said that Koh Brothers will keep on monitoring the market for real estate opportunities and set up readily available projects at the right time. “We are in the midst of a challenging period,” he said.
Koh Brothers owns the main site of Lincoln Lodge at Khiang Guan Avenue away from Newton Road in District 11. It was acquired in 2007 through KSH Holdings, Heeton Holdings, and Lian Beng Group when property business is on the boom.
Koh remains confident that the contracts-in-hand they have, which is worth more than $600 million, will support the company for the coming fiscal year and the future as well.
On Feb 19, the last day of trading, the stocks for Koh Brothers closed at 13 cents.