Property developer Keppel Land has said it is growing a stronger commercial presence overseas.
This is to help achieve a more balanced portfolio amid the cloudy outlook for 2012.
Keppel Land Group CEO Kevin Wong said: “We are trying to reduce our (exposure to) volatility of any particular property sector. (As a result of) the cooling measures of the residential market, we are trying to move to the office market or the retail market.”
The comment came as Keppel Land announced full-year earnings.
For all of 2011, it booked a record net profit of $1.37 billion dollars, up by 30 per cent from the previous year.
This is the second year in a row that Keppel Land’s earnings have exceeded $1 billion.
The earnings were boosted by one-time gains from the sale of its stake in Ocean Properties.
Keppel Land said it managed to sell about 2,500 homes last year, despite the uncertain global outlook and property-cooling measures by governments in Singapore and China.
The group achieved a higher turnover of $949 million in 2011, an increase of almost 39 per cent from last year’s figures of $685.4 million.
Keppel Land has announced a full dividend of 20 cents per share, its highest dividend payout on record.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 19 Jan 2012