(March 27): Property developer Crescendo Corporation Bhd on Wednesday declared a special dividend as earnings surged to a seven-year high on the back of rising home sales and high margin industrial land disposal.
Crescendo is planning to pay an interim dividend of five sen per share and another 13 sen as special dividend, according to an exchange filing. Net profit more than doubled to RM57.06 million in the 12 months ended Jan 31, 2024 (FY2024) while revenue surged 58% to RM341.35 million, the filing showed.
“The property market will remain challenging in the short and medium-term due to rising cost of construction resulting from fluctuations in building materials cost as a result of currency depreciation and inflationary pressure,” Crescendo flagged.
Still, the company still expects to “perform well” in FY2025 as the land sales in Nusa Cemerlang Industrial Park will gross RM545 million and allow the company to book an estimated gain after tax of about RM310 million upon their completion in FY2025.
Within the next one year, the company plans to launch 167 units of mid- to high-end market landed residences at Bandar Cemerlang and 57 units of shop-offices at Desa Cemerlang with a total gross development value (GDV) of RM237 million, it noted.
Further, Crescendo will begin the main infrastructure work of the industrial park at Bandar Cemerlang in FY2025 “as we plan to launch the first phase for sales within the next three years,” Crescendo.
Crescendo also plans to launch 1,200 units of serviced apartments near Bukit Chagar with a total GDV of about RM1 billion in the second half of FY2025.
The company turned around in the final quarter of FY2024 with net profit of RM21.61 million from a net loss of RM3.64 million in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter tripled year-on-year to RM120.11 million from RM39.27 million.
In Nov 2023, the company signed two separate agreements to sell freehold vacant land for a total of RM117.02 million. Crescendo completed another deal to sell land for RM315.17 million in the same month.