JARDINE Matheson Holdings (JMH) on Thursday (Aug 1) posted a US$550 million underlying net profit for the six months ended June, down 33 per cent from the year-ago period.
It kept its interim dividend unchanged from a year ago at US$0.60 per share.
“The group delivered weaker results in the first half of 2024, impacted by impairments in Hongkong Land’s Chinese mainland development properties business and challenging market conditions in Indonesia and Vietnam,” said executive chairman Ben Keswick.
Excluding the impairments at Hongkong Land, H1 underlying profit was down 14 per cent. This was due to expected headwinds from lower commodity prices at Astra, as well as lower new car margins on the Chinese mainland.
JMH also had marginally lower underlying profits in most other businesses amid challenging conditions. However, Keswick noted that DFI Retail showed “an encouraging improvement”.
The company’s revenue for H1 fell 5 per cent to US$17.3 billion. It recorded a net non-trading loss of US$590 million for the half-year, mainly due to net fair value losses on investment properties. This was wider than the year-ago net non-trading loss of US$257 million.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Looking ahead, JMH expect its full-year results to be “modestly below” that of 2023.
The company said that its businesses “continue to seek new inorganic growth opportunities in the digital economy, emerging industries and new geographies”.
“This is well illustrated by Astra’s partnership with Equinix, one of the world’s largest digital infrastructure companies, to develop data centres in Indonesia, as well as United Tractors’ acquisition of interests in Supreme Energy Sriwijaya, Nickel Industries and Stargate,” it added.
JMH ended Thursday at US$35.19, down 0.03 per cent.
