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Roxy relaunching Trilive with 8% price cut on selected units

By Kalpana Rashiwala

[email protected]@KalpanaBT

5 Nov


PROPERTY and hotel group Roxy-Pacific Holdings, which posted a 23 per cent drop in third-quarter net earnings, is relaunching its freehold Trilive condo in the Kovan area, with price reductions of about 8 per cent on selected units.

To date, the group has sold only 20-odd units in the 222-unit project, at an average price of about S$1,500-plus per square foot, Roxy executive chairman and CEO Teo Hong Lim told BT on Tuesday.

He also said that for the 8 Russell Street strata retail venture in Hong Kong in which Roxy has a 30 per cent stake, less than two floors of the 21 levels of retail space remain for sale.
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Roxy posted S$12.37 million net profit for Q3 ended Sept 30, down from S$16.08 million for Q3 last year, amid a 12 per cent fall in revenue to S$67.16 million.

Revenue from the group's main source of turnover, property development, shrank 19 per cent to S$51.98 million - chiefly due to lower revenue recognition from Spottiswoode 18.

The group's share of profits of associates climbed to S$8.07 million from S$2.73 million previously, largely because of profit recognition from sale completion of certain strata retail units at 8 Russell Street in Q3 2014.

Earnings per share fell to 1.04 Singapore cents from 1.35 cents a year ago. Net asset value (NAV) per share came to 29.73 Singapore cents as at Sept 30, up from 27.62 cents as at Dec 31, 2013. The counter last traded on Monday at 56 Singapore cents.

For the first nine months, net profit rose 6 per cent to S$50.1 million, while revenue improved 25 per cent to S$249.25 million. Revenue from property development expanded 28 per cent to S$209.78 million.

Roxy's net gearing ratio (net borrowings divided by adjusted NAV, to include the revaluation surplus for Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel in Singapore) stood at 0.72 as at the end of Sept 30, 2014, up from 0.68 as at Dec 31, 2013. Interest cover ratio came to 10.6, down from 19.4 for the whole of last year.

In Q3 , the group completed its acquisition of 59 Goulburn Street, an office block in Sydney's CBD. While the group enjoys steady net yield of over 6 per cent annually on tenancies, which have on average about three more years to run, it will use this period to evaluate the possibility of redeveloping the prime freehold site to harness unutilised plot ratio. "We shall evaluate the best-use potential for the property, which can be redeveloped into office, hotel and residential use, with the Sydney planning authorities," Mr Teo said.

In Kuala Lumpur, the group plans to launch for sale in H1 2015 the residential component of about 700 units in its mixed-use joint-venture project.

The group is developing its own boutique hotel brand which it will stamp on its recently acquired Kyoto and Phuket hotels. The Kyoto property will be spruced up before it is flagged with the new brand. In Phuket, the group has bought a string of villas and adjoining land on which it plans to build more villas.