TYO:1928

Sekisui House's Fiscal Q1 Profit Rises on Higher Rental, Development Sales

Sekisui House's (TYO:1928) attributable profit increased in the first fiscal quarter as sales in the rental and development segments grew during the period.The Japanese construction company's attributable profit jumped 75% to 58.5 billion yen in the three months through April 30 from 33.4 billion yen in the year-ago period, according to a Tokyo Exchange filing Thursday.Diluted earnings per share grew to 90.19 yen from 51.48 yen a year earlier.Net sales inched up 1.7% to 908.9 billion yen from 894 billion yen in the prior-year period.In its built-to-order business, net sales of its rental housing and commercial buildings increased 2.1% to 122.2 billion yen from 119.7 billion yen.Rental housing management sales from the supplied housing business grew 3.1% to 185.1 billion yen from 179.5 billion yen.Remodeling business sales jumped 5.4% to 41.5 billion yen from 39.4 billion yen amid efforts to promote energy-efficient remodeling for detached homes.Total sales from its development business surged 37% to 168.3 billion yen from 123.3 billion yen.Sales in the U.S. homebuilding segment fell 19% to 193.7 billion yen from 238.2 billion yen amid a wait-and-see attitude due to inflation and high mortgage interest rates, Sekisui said.The homebuilder also attributed the decline to lower order backlogs at the beginning of the fiscal year.Operating profit increased 26% to 76.1 billion yen, led by a 158% surge in its development segment operating profit.While total orders fell 0.8% year over year to 1.071 trillion yen, supplied housing orders jumped 5.2% to 237.1 billion yen from 225.3 billion yen.The figures come as Japan's new housing starts of owner-occupied houses and rental homes slumped due to the impact of revisions to the Building Energy Efficiency Act, as well as higher construction and mortgage costs, Sekisui said.