Stock Earning: Ascott Q1 net profit soars 18-fold!

Ascott Q1 net profit soars nearly 18-fold on divestment gains The Ascott Group said its net profit for the first quarter to March surged nearly 18 times to 43.78 mln sgd from 2.44 mln in the same period last year on divestment gains after it sold 12 assets to a real estate investment trust firm. It said its first quarter net profit has already topped its full-year profit of 41.9 mln sgd in 2005. Sales for the first quarter rose 7 pct year-on-year to 106.54 mln sgd.

ART is a the real estate investment trust (REIT) arm of Ascott Group and is listed on the Singapore Exchange. CapitaLand unit Ascott Group first quarter to March results:

Revenue - 106.54 mln sgd vs 99.66 mln

Pretax profit - 48.34 mln sgd vs 5.73 mln

Net profit - 43.8 mln sgd vs 2.44 mln

EPS - 2.72 cents vs 0.15

Quarterly div – nil