RIL Property June quarter profit up 37% to Rs.78mn

RIL Property PLC, a developer and manager of ‘Grade A’ commercial office space releasing its first set of quarterly results since the company went public in early April this year showed positive financial performance in both its top and bottom lines, but the share is currently trading slightly below its Initial Public Offer (IPO) price.   

RIL Property group, which also runs the BreadTalk franchised outlets in Sri Lanka, reported an earnings of 13 cents a share or Rs.78.3 million for the Apri-June quarter (1Q18), up 37 percent year-on-year (YoY).

The group top line for the period was Rs.247.7 million compared to Rs.217.1 million YoY.  The RIL Property’s share closed 10 cents or 1.25 percent lower at Rs.7.90 at last week’s market close. 
On April 4, RIL Property debuted in the Colombo Stock Exchange, issuing 120 million shares at a price of Rs.8.00 a share raising a total of Rs.960 million. The share hit a high of Rs.9.00 on the first day of trading.   Unutilized IPO proceeds, amounting to Rs.866 million, are temporarily invested in short-term financial assets with NDB Wealth Management Limited until such proceeds are fully utilized for intended purposes. 

An estimated Rs.694.1 million will be spent to refurbish the company’s Readywear building bordering Braybrook Place through June 2019, which will expand its rentable space to 59, 232 sq.ft from 45, 897 sq.ft upon completion. 

RIL Property developed its Parkland building in September 2015 at Park Street with 194, 345 sq.ft.
The company’s Chairman, Sunil Wijesinha in an earnings release said the occupancy at Parkland had reached 100 percent and the refurbishment work at Readywear had also been commenced. 
Upon completion RIL group will have a total rentable space of 253, 577 sq.ft. 

Further, at the time of the IPO, the group estimated to spend Rs.265.9 million for the expansion of BreadTalk outlets up to 16 throughout the country by 2021. 

The company invested this amount raised from the IPO in FoodBuzz Private Limited, the group’s 100 percent subsidiary which operates as the franchisee for the Singapore-based BreadTalk group. 
FoodBuzz has relocated its Park Street outlet, expanded the Central Kitchen at Lipton Circus, opened at Maharagama and Mount Lavinia outlets and imported new machinery as per the company’s intended expansion plan for BreadTalk.

Segmental results showed that FoodBuzz having made an after-tax loss of slightly under Rs.12.0 million, roughly doubled the losses from a year earlier but the revenue has ticked higher to Rs.94 million from Rs.82 million recorded for the quarter in the same period in 2016. 

RIL Property remains optimistic that their line of businesses in commercial space renting and convenient dining of quality bakery products are complemented with the fast changing business landscape in Colombo and the fast growing middle income segment in the society. 

By June 30, 2017, the Yaseen family held slightly under 80 percent stake in RIL Properties.
Meanwhile, the top 20 shareholder list of the company observed some new entrants, including Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC with 3.3 percent stake, Melstacorp PLC with 3.1 percent, Phoenix Ventures Private Limited with 2.0 percent and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation with 1.7 percent stake.