In a special announcement, the exchange said the suspension was triggered after the stock dropped more than 15% per or 15 sen from the reference price.
It said the short selling under IDSS will only be activated the following trading day, Friday, Aug 16, 2024, at 8.30am.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, SP Setia’s net profit soared almost sevenfold to RM295.03 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2024 (Q2 FY2024) from RM43.06 million in Q2 FY2023, boosted by land sales.
The property developer’s revenue jumped 58.5% to RM1.5 billion from RM942.7 million, mainly contributed by its property development segment.
Analysts said SP Setia is anticipated to continue recognising land sale gains, particularly from Setia City, Shah Alam, and Taman Pelangi, Johor, in the second half of 2024 (H2 2024), offset by Battersea Power Station (BPS) losses.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd (HLIB) said despite the results coming in at 52.3% of a full-year forecast, they were below expectation with its first half of 2024 (H1 2024) boosted by substantial land sale gains of RM361 million.
“We anticipate lower land sale gain in H2 2024. The negative deviation in our results was due to a wider-than-expected share of losses from BPS amounting to RM125 million in H1 2024,” it said.
A BPS joint venture company sold an office block with a five-year rental guarantee provision based on a forecasted shortfall between the rental guarantee and the threshold net operating income.
“The office building was completed in April 2024. “Losses could “persist” until the office market improves,” HLIB said.
HLIB said the UK office market is “challenging” and it expects the UK project to “take a longer time to secure tenants for its office towers,” resulting in continuing losses due to the rental income guarantee provision.
“Factoring this, we lower our FY2024/FY2025 forecasts by -14%/-8.1% while leaving our FY2026 forecast unchanged,” it added.
However, HLIB said it remains confident that the group’s overall performance will be well-supported by the robust recovery in Malaysia’s property market.
“We maintain a ‘buy’ call with a lower target price (TP) of RM1.80 per share,” it said.
Meanwhile, Public Investment Bank Bhd said SP Setia’s net profit in H1 2024 has surpassed consensus full-year estimates.
“We adjusted our FY 2024 upwards by 59% to account for gains from the completed land sales and also two more pending completions in H2 FY2024 (with an estimated cumulative RM200 million gain) but mitigated by losses from BPS.
“We maintain a ‘neutral’ call with TP unchanged at RM1.30,” it added.
As at 4.15pm, SP Setia’s share price was down by 23 sen or 15.13% at RM1.29, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM6.27 billion.