Ananda Development PCL announces The Harvest Begins as first quarter net profit rose 102% year on year on revenues up 86% over the previous year and 34% above guidance.

          Ananda Development Public Company Limited announces net profits of 149 million Baht for the quarter, an increase of 102% over the same quarter a year ago. The company generated 2,595 million Baht in revenue, an increase of 86% over the same quarter a year earlier in line with its guidance that 2016 is the year The Harvest Period Begins as revenues are expected to show rapid growth over the next three years as the capital raised at the IPO in 2012 begins to generate returns from the investments made then.
          During the quarter the company publicly launched two new condominiums close to mass transit stations,Ashton Silom on Silom Road, with a total project value of 6 billion Baht, that was 59.3% presold and Ideo Tha Phra Interchange, 100 meters from MRT Tha Phra Interchange, with a total project value of 3 billion Baht, achieved a 28% sales rate of the 1.5 billion Baht of units released for sale.
          Including sales from existing projects the company generated total presales for the quarter of 4.8 billion Baht, in line with guidance.
          Commenting on the success of the recent launches, Mr. Ted Thirapatana, Chief Business Development Officer for Ananda, stated, "We have achieved 23% of our initial annual presales target in the first quarter and we still have 11 planned projects to be launched this year. We achieved our expectations and demonstrated that demand exists for units at all price ranges provided the units are good value for money, quality units near mass transit stations."
          The company ended the quarter with a record backlog of 38.5 billion Baht, due to transfer over the next 3 years, an increase of 3.7% from the previous quarter and up 12.5% from the same quarter a year earlier.
          1st quarter revenues from sales of real estate were 2.2 billion Baht, 34% higher than guidance issued at the beginning of the year and represents an 81% increase over the same quarter a year earlier. This drove the company's net profits to 149 million Baht for the quarter, an increase of 102% year on year. The company raised its guidance for total annual transfer for the year only slightly by 0.4% from that given earlier in the year at between 15 - 16 billion Baht. The company's net margin was 6% for the quarter, an improvement from the 5% in the same quarter last year.
          Commenting on the results Ms. Muntana Au-kitkajorn, Chief Financial Officer for Ananda Development said, "The revenue results exceeded our expectation. In particular, a new project, Ideo Q Ratchathewi completed construction and began to transfer in the quarter at a faster rate than we anticipated. Profits were also better than expected as the company was successful in continuing to control costs in the quarter, with selling, general and administration costs to revenue falling to 24% in the quarter from 28% in the same quarter a year ago despite the company's rapid growth."
          Mr Chanond Ruangkritya, CEO of Ananda, said, "We are delighted to have achieved such strong revenue results in the quarter and in particular that our net profits doubled from the same quarter last year. 2016 is the beginning of an exciting period for Ananda as we enter what we refer to as our "Harvest Period". We are finally about to see the investment made after the IPO come through as transfers when we expect to see transfers grow much more rapidly from 2016 onwards as buildings already launched and sold begin to transfer. We have five condominium buildings finishing construction and beginning to transfer in 2016." 
          He added, "The overall economic situation is neither boom nor bust but condominiums close to mass transit stations continue to show strong demand in line with our view that the mass transit system is causing a transformation in the way Bangkok residents live, work and play and causing the redevelopment and modernization of the city's housing away from townhouses along roads and to be high rises next to mass transit stations."
          He continued, "We have maintained our operational discipline and brought down our percentage of selling, general and administration costs to revenue compared to last year. We also maintained financial discipline and achieved this growth without adding risk and maintained our net interest bearing debt to equity to only 0.8:1."
          He concluded, "Our cash flow remains strong and we have maintained a large cash balance with over 2.8 billion Baht in cash at the end of the quarter. We have continued to have strong support from our banks and have multiple options in place to fund the cash needs of the company through the year depending on how the situation evolves. In May 2016, we issued a new equity treated non-convertible unsecured perpetual security instrument of 1 billion Baht, supporting the growth and working capital for the business. Our financial discipline has been recognized by TRIS Ratings upgrading our corporate credit rating from "BBB-" with positive outlook to "BBB" with stable outlook and rating the perpetual issuance at "BB+" with stable outlook."