In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the property developer said its revenue eased 7% to RM942.72 million from RM1.02 billion previously.

The company said this was due to lower contributions from its Singapore and Malaysia’s central region operations.

Other factors included higher financing cost due to interest rate hikes, unfavourable foreign exchange movements and higher share of losses from joint ventures.

In a separate statement, the group said it secured RM2.56 billion in total sales in the first half of 2023 (H1 FY2023) with local projects contributing RM2.19 billion, or 86% of sales.

With 44 ongoing projects and unbilled sales of RM6.82 billion as of June 30, 2023, the group’s earnings visibility in the short- to medium- term is robust, it said.

Meanwhile, despite the global challenges posed by persistent inflation and higher interest rates, the group is optimistic about achieving a noteworthy performance for FY2023.

Through the group’s disciplined debt reduction programme and de-gearing roadmap implementation across all its business units, the net gearing level of the group has been reduced to 0.55 times and this is expected to improve progressively.

President and CEO Choong Kai Wai said over the long-term, the group will continue to move towards a lighter asset structure. The group will also leverage its remaining land bank of 2,780ha with a total gross development value of RM125.77 billion.

As at 4.58pm, SP Setia’s share price was up 2.5 sen or 3.27% at 79 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM3.22 billion.