It said the projections were lowered after it factored in the stronger sales from Australia and lower finance costs.

In a note today, the investment bank maintained its “buy” call on ECWI’s shares based on the property developer’s plans to sustain the sales momentum by offering attractive incentive packages and to attract foreign buyers via international marketing activities.

“ECWI has also received approval for its last project in Sydney in February 2023 and is reviewing the project due to the uncertain property market outlook there,” Maybank IB added.

In its first quarter ended Jan 31 (Q1 2023), ECWI recorded a higher net loss of RM30.82 million compared with RM14.66 million in Q1 2022, mainly due to foreign exchange losses that arose from the weakening of the British pound against the ringgit.

Its revenue declined to RM22.37 million versus RM49.24 million previously.

Maybank IB noted that ECWI recorded property sales of RM335 million in Q1 2023, leaving the property developer on track to meet its RM1.4 billion sales target for financial year 2023.

“Hence, its commitment to reward its shareholders with a 37.5 sen special distribution by end-2023 is achievable,” it said.

As of 11.35am, ECWI advanced 5.5 sen to 47.5 sen, with 5.03 million shares traded.