PETALING JAYA: Property developer S P Setia Bhdsecured total sales of RM470mil in the first quarter of financial year 2020 (1Q20), with about 77% of the sales contributed by its local projects.

In addition to the sales secured, the group had also secured about RM723mil bookings in the pipeline in the January-March 2020 period.

According to its president and chief executive officer Datuk Khor Chap Jen, SP Setia’s focus during the conditional movement control order (MCO) would be on the swift conversion of these bookings into sales.

SP Setia told the stock exchange yesterday that its 1Q20 revenue fell by almost 19% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM702.66mil, mainly attributable to the closure of sales offices and construction sites in compliance with the MCO.

The MCO had also hampered the signing of sale and purchase agreements and hence, delayed the conversion of the company’s bookings into sales.

Meanwhile, its net profit in the first quarter took a sharper fall by 62% y-o-y to RM28.46mil. In the same quarter last financial year, the group recorded a net profit of almost RM75mil.As a result of the lower profitability, SP Setia registered a loss per share of 0.93 sen in 1Q20, as compared to an earnings per share of 0.22 sen in 1Q19. No dividend was declared for the latest first quarter.

Moving forward, the company said that the continued practice of social distancing over the extended conditional MCO period will impact on construction progress.

For comparison, SP Setia recorded a total sales of RM4.56bil in FY19.

In the first three months of 2020, the property developer has also focused on clearing its inventories, whereby RM102mil worth of inventories were monetised during this period.Moving forward, other than focusing on clearing the completed inventories, SP Setia said it will remain prudent with limited new launches concentrating on the mid-range landed units in established townships to cater to the demand of owner-occupiers.