Mah Sing said it has a healthy cash and bank balance.
PETALING JAYA: Mah Sing Group Bhd is confident of achieving its minimum sales target of RM2.2bil for this year.
The property developer had registered a strong RM1.8bil in property sales in its nine-month year-to-date (y-t-d) period – an increase of 14.4% compared with RM1.57bil in the same period last year.
“With our strong product leadership position in affordable homes and ongoing active launches, we are confident of meeting our full-year sales target of minimum RM2.2bil,” Mah Sing’s founder and group managing director Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum said in a statement.
The company’s net profit had recorded a year-on-year increase of 6.29% to RM50.02mil in the third quarter ended Sept 30 on the back of revenues falling slightly to RM644.26mil from RM671.12mil in the same quarter a year ago.
For the year-to-date period the company said it recorded revenue and pre-tax profit of RM1.93bil and RM226.8mil which is a 17.3% and 15.6% improvement respectively compared with a year ago.
Mah Sing said it has a healthy cash and bank balance, low 0.13 times net gearing ratio and it is actively looking to acquire more land especially in the Klang Valley, Johor and Penang.
“Our unbilled sales have grown to RM2.42bil, providing future revenue visibility for us.
“Leveraging on our healthy balance sheet and confidence in our quick turnaround business model, we are actively seeking to replenish our land banks in the Klang Valley, Johor and Penang to expand our residential and industrial development portfolios,” Leong said.
During the quarter under review, the company said it had rewarded and paid RM72.8mil to shareholders in the form of dividends, representing the 17th year of uninterrupted dividend payout record at a minimum 40% of annual profit.
Including all new land acquired to date, the company said it has a remaining landbank of 2,282 acres with a gross development value of RM26.3bil.
Mah Sing said it registered new property sales of RM600mil for the third quarter, bringing the y-t-d cumulative sales to RM1.8bil which is a 14.4% increase compared to RM1.57bil excluding land sales of RM115mil in the same period last year.Commenting on the property outlook, Mah Sing said the sector should continue to benefit from the five-year stamp duty waiver for residential properties priced below RM500,000 for first-time home buyers (until the end of 2025) as announced in Budget 2024.
“As proposed in the recent budget announcement, the government’s plan to ease the current conditions of Malaysia My Second Home applications is timely to attract foreign buyers.
“In addition, the RM10bil housing credit guarantee scheme will help make homeownership more accessible to first-time buyers,” it said.
It also highlighted the National Property Information Centre’s statistics as showing the overhang condition within the residential housing market having improved.
According to the statistics, the housing market had achieved its lowest level since the second quarter of 2018 in the first half of 2023 and the incoming supply for residential is at its lowest level since the first half of 2021.
“The reducing trend for incoming supply and improving overhang conditions is positive for the housing market,” it added.