28th Feb 2019 10:03
LONDON (Alliance News) - Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd on Thursday reported a drop in annual pretax profit and warned on challenging conditions in 2019.
Jardine Matheson is an Asia-focused business group, which operates hotels, car dealership and insurance businesses among others.
For 2018, the company's pretax profit came in at USD5.47 billion, down from USD9.52 billion a year ago. This was mainly due to a lower gain in the change in fair value of investments during the year.
On an adjusted basis, pretax profit rose to USD4.93 billion from USD4.30 billion.
Revenue meanwhile increased to USD42.53 billion from USD38.75 billion, while including revenue from the firm's associates and joint venture it reached USD92.35 billion.
"After a good performance in 2018 driven primarily by Astra, Hongkong Land and Jardine Cycle & Carriage, we expect the group to face more challenging conditions in 2019 due to economic uncertainties affecting consumer sentiment and commodity prices," Chair Ben Keswick said.
The company upped its total dividend by 6% to USD1.70 from USD1.60. This was after it proposed a final USD1.28 dividend per share.
Jardine Matheson shares were un-traded at USD62.35 each on Thursday morning.
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