Polytec Asset net profit rises nine-fold to HK$43.7 mln

Hong Kong-listed property developer Polytec Asset Holdings Ltd., which holds real estate business in Macau, saw its group-wide net profit increase more than nine-fold last year to HK43.7 million (US$564 million), the company told the stock exchange after trading hours on Wednesday. Polytec Asset’s turnover for 2014 rose by a year-on-year 3.6 per cent to HK$294.6 million, of which about 5.4 per cent, or HK$16 million, was generated by its property business. Some 53.5 per cent of the turnover registered is generated by the oil business, with the rest from the ice and cold storage business, according to the filing. The property developer has seen an 8.3 per cent increase in its gross rental income to HK$54.2 million generated by its investment properties during the course of last year, a boost primarily due to more rents received by the company’s Macau properties. Rental income from the commercial complex located in the Nam Van district, Macau Square, rose 12 per cent to HK$50.6 million in 2014, the company noted in the filing. Polytec Asset owns 50 per cent interest in Macau Square. The disposal of some car parking spaces in Macau and Hong Kong also generated a combined income of HK$26.5 million for the company last year. While Macau has seen an economic slowdown since the third quarter of last year due to dwindling gaming revenue, leading to a ‘correction’ in the property market here, Polytec Asset still believes that its property investments in Macau will continue to generate stable income for the group this year. Polytec Asset has a landbank of about 715,000 square metres of gross floor area located adjacent to the landing point of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in Areia Preta district, on the northern part of the Macau Peninsula. This landbank includes lotes ‘T’ and ‘T1’ in the Orient Pearl district in Areia Preta, which are of an aggregate site area of about 17,900 square metres. The project that Polytec Asset is building on the lots, of which the company owns 80 per cent interest, is a cluster of high-end residential blocks with retail shops and car parking spaces. Polytec Asset also owns 80 per cent in another property development project in the Orient Pearl district, known as ‘Pearl Horizon’. The project, which occupies an aggregate site of about 68,000 square metres, is being developed into a group of high-end residential towers together with a ‘full-facility’ shopping arcade, a clubhouse and car parking spaces. The company previously gained over HK$20 billion from contracted presales of over 3,000 residential units of its two major luxury residential development projects in the Orient Pearl district over the past few years. The two projects are expected to be compled and handed over to homebuyers in 2017/2018, the filing noted.