KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 22): Property developer Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O) has recorded a net profit of RM29.73 million in its second financial quarter ended Sept 30, 2023 (2QFY2024), a huge leap from the RM16,000 net profit posted a year ago, mainly due to enhanced revenue and absence of unrealised foreign exchange loss of RM19.9 million recognised in 2QFY2023.

Quarterly revenue rose 30.4% to RM123.86 million from RM95.02 million in 2QFY2023, thanks to increased contribution from both its properties and the hospitality segments, its filing on Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday showed.

E&O said the properties segment’s revenue rose by 35.0% from RM71.4 million to RM96.4 million in 2QFY2024, as a result of higher sales for its ongoing project, Arica @ Andaman, as well as its joint venture projects, namely Conlay, The Peak and Avira Garden Terraces.

Similarly, the hospitality segment’s revenue increased by 15.8% from RM22.5 million to RM26.0 million, attributed to higher average room rate and occupancy rate achieved by Eastern & Oriental Hotel (Penang) and E&O Residences (Kuala Lumpur).

For its cumulative six-month financial period ended Sept 30, 2023 (1HFY2024), E&O posted a net profit of RM62.69 million, compared with a net loss of RM1.63 million in the corresponding period last year, as revenue rose by 22% to RM209.3 million, from RM171.6 million.

In a separate statement during the company’s results briefing on Wednesday, E&O managing director Kok Tuck Cheong said the group is currently working on completing landed homes for its development in Andaman Island, an artificial island off the Northeast coast of Penang, which is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of FY2024.

“In essence, the property market is showing promising signs of growth, and we are cautiously optimistic that this will further bolster our earnings, not only from Penang, but from the sales of our developments located across prime areas, such as Damansara Heights in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru,” Kok said.

“As we are heading into [the] year-end festive season, we are seeing higher occupancy rates in our hotels in Malaysia and London, which we believe will continue to contribute positively to our earnings,” he added.

At the time of writing, shares of E&O were trading two sen or 3.42% higher at 60 sen per share, with a market capitalisation of RM1.12 billion.

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