Belle profit drops 17.8% on forex losses

Leisure property development firm Belle Corp. reported a 17.8 percent drop in its net earnings for the January to March period this year, weighed down by foreign exchange  losses.

Belle said its net profit fell to P37 million from P45 million a year earlier as it incurred P12 million in foreign exchange translation losses from a   $22-million in dollar-denominated debt owing to the depreciation of the peso against the dollar since end-2007.

In the first quarter of 2007, Belle booked  P17 million in foreign exchange gains.

Belle said its net revenues rose 55.49 percent to P255 million from P164 million while income from real estate operate operations grew 53.4 percent to P89 million.

Belle vice-chairman Willy Ocier said he is optimistic the company will continue to perform well during the rest of the year given a buoyant real estate industry.

“The Philippine high-end leisure and property markets continue to be strong.  We are proceeding with plans for 2008 that we formulated last year, including the construction and expansion of our highly successful Lakeside Fairways subdivision project in addition to new projects,” he said.

Last year, Belle posted a net profit of P331.7 million, more than double the P152.3 million reported in 2006 on higher sales of club shares and real estate products.  Revenues increased seven percent to P622 million while gross sales value or total contract price of all sales and reservations booked grew 119.3 percent to P1.5 billion.