28/01/2012 (The Star) -  Al-Hadharah Boustead REIT posted a huge jump in net profit to RM238.9mil for its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2011 compared with RM32.3mil a year earlier.

The Islamic plantation-based real estate investment trust (REIT) told Bursa Malaysia that this was mainly due to the large unrealised gain from the revaluation of investment properties of RM212.5mil compared with only RM14.3mil the previous year.

Revenue for the quarter under review was RM22.4mil compared with RM19.8mil a year earlier.

For its full financial year in 2011 (FY11), the investment trust posted a 268.4% year-on-year increase in net profit to RM305.8mil compared with RM82.1mil a year earlier.

Its realised profit increased by 37.5% to RM93.2mil (compared with RM67.8mil in 2010), which included a gain from the compulsory acquisition of investment properties by the Government amounting to RM7.2mil.

In FY11, the REIT recorded higher revenue of RM99.6mil (compared with RM75mil in 2010) due partly to additional rental from the recently acquired Taiping Rubber Plantation and Sutera Estates.

The REIT’s net asset value rose to RM1.81 per unit for the 12-month period compared with RM1.42 per unit in 2010.

The REIT stated that this year would be challenging due to uncertainties in the global economy.

“We believe that crude palm oil prices are more likely to remain moderate in 2012 in a narrower trading range between RM2,750 and RM3,250 per tonne,” it said.

Meanwhile, the REIT’s chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said in a statement that the asset revaluation exercise had resulted in an increase in the closing net book value of the REIT’s investment properties to RM1.3bil.

“We are pleased to have declared a final dividend of 8 sen, bringing the total dividend for the year to 12 sen. This represents a strong yield of 8% based on the closing unit price of the year,” he said.