Real estate brokers Hiyes International Co (海悅國際開發) and Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) both saw their earnings bolstered by a pickup in property transactions in the first quarter of this year, and expect the growth momentum to sustain this quarter and beyond.
Net profit at Hiyes soared to NT$919.11 million (US$28.44 million) from NT$30.41 million a year earlier, with earnings per share (EPS) rising from NT$0.26 to NT$7.93, the nation’s largest real estate agency by market share said in a statement on Monday.
The showing came after Hiyes’ net profit last year gained 77.16 percent to a record NT$1.66 billion, with EPS of NT$13.86, which allowed the firm to propose a NT$7 per share cash dividend and a NT$2 stock dividend pending approval at the company’s annual general meeting on June 18.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Hiyes attributed its first-quarter performance to the nation’s buoyant economy, government interest subsidies and other favorable lending terms for first-home purchases.
Furthermore, capacity expansion plans by major local technology firms, chiefly Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), helped create jobs in different parts of the nation and lent support to real demand for new housing, the company said.
Hiyes also reaped NT$255 million in profit contributions from its private equity investments in construction companies, as the company continues to diversify its income sources to offset uneven seasonal profit distributions, it said.
Developers cannot recognize profits until completing construction of presale houses and delivering them to the buyers, largely in the fourth quarter of the year. The accounting rules make earnings in the slow season look weak.
The current quarter is a relatively low season, but Hiyes has accumulated more than NT$100 billion of projects, which would help subdue unfavorable seasonal effects, it said.
Hiyes said it is positive about its mid to long-term earnings outlook, as it has made arrangements to book profits from investments and non-core operations.
Sinyi Realty, the nation’s only listed broker, posted NT$459 million in net income during the first quarter of the year, a 8.42 percent decline from a year earlier, with EPS of NT$0.62.
The retreat came even though existing home transactions last quarter rebounded 26 percent to 81,000 units, lifting its income by 46.86 percent to NT$995 million, the company said.
However, the company’s property development arm failed to report any profits, it said.
Sinyi is not worried about its financial results going forward, saying that the property market would likely continue to recover on the back of the government’s interest subsidies and the wealth effect linked to the rising TAIEX.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS