by TMR

TA Enterprise Bhd’s profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 (1Q18) rose 62.43% year-on-year (YoY) to RM128.61 million due higher contribution from its property investment, property development and hotel operations.

Revenue for the three months also increased to RM1.05 billion from RM256.53 million gained in 1Q17 due to the same reasons.

TA Enterprise’s property investment division reported profit before tax (PBT) of RM3.2 million in the quarter as compared to RM0.2 million achieved in January to March last year due to higher rental revenue.

Its property development division recorded RM358.0 million PBT in 1Q18 against a loss before tax of RM4.9 million in previous year’s corresponding quarter due to the gain on disposal of development property located in Little Bay, Australia and the compulsory acquisition of an undeveloped land located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, by the Malaysian government, the company noted in its exchange filing yesterday.

TA’s hotel operations registered a net operating profit of RM33.1 million in the 1Q as compared to RM28.6 million in 1Q17 mainly due to higher hotel occupancy, in particular from the Swissotel Merchant Court in Singapore and lower finance costs.

Foreign exchange translation gain from the appreciation of US dollar against Thai baht in 1Q18 also helped improve the hotel operations division’s returns in the period.