Keppel Corp has announced that its operating revenue in the second quarter increased 24.6 percent to $444.6 million on the back of a 24.6-percent year-on-year fall in profit to $2.42 billion.
However, due to the absence of a one-time gain worth $422 million in Q2 2009, the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders fell 53 percent year-on-year to $347.3 million.
Keppel’s net profit attributable to shareholders in Q2 last year was $739.5 million, including the $422 million exceptional profit. It increased 9.4 percent year-on-year to $347.3 million on a pre-exceptional basis.
The increase in operating profit was attributed to the drop in “other operating expenses” by 65.2 percent to $50.2 million, “which was mainly due to lower fair value loss on investments and lower foreign exchange loss,” according to Keppel.
Furthermore, Keppel’s net profit attributable to shareholders, after exceptionals, in the first half of 2010 fell 34.7 percent to $669.3 million, while sales slipped 20.9 percent to $4.9 billion. Before exceptionals, net profit attributable to shareholders rose 11.1 percent to $699.3 million.
The conglomerate’s property unit was the strong performer in H1 with net income up 119 percent at $173 million. This was due to higher contributions from trading projects and affiliates developing the Marina Bay suites in Singapore.