Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O) is cautiously optimistic about its performance going forward after surpassing its sales target of RM500 million for the company's financial year ending March 31, 2023 (FY2023) by the end of the third quarter.

The company had already recorded RM555.9 million in sales in the third quarter.

Executive chairman Datuk Tee Eng Ho said the target set had been conservative, and as for its third quarter, the main sales had come from The Meg project at RM403.7 million, followed by The Peak (RM130 million), Conlay apartments (RM15.3 million) and Avira Phase C (RM7 million).

"To date, we also have about RM823.6 million in unbilled sales which will progressively be recognised over FY2023 to FY2026," he told reporters and analysts at a results briefing.

Separately in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, E&O said it posted a net profit of RM30.09 million from RM7.83 million while revenue stood at RM81.20 million from RM23.38 million a year ago.

It noted that the jump in revenue was mainly due to higher revenue recognition from land reclamation works and the ongoing The Meg project while the higher profit was also due to a foreign exchange gain of RM16 million during the quarter.

The Meg, which comprises 1,020 apartments and 14 shop units, is more than 95 per cent sold since it started selling the project in January 2022, it said.

As for its hospitality business, E&O shared that it is also improving with higher occupancy and average room rates on the back of a continued strong recovery in tourism and business travel.

Tee highlighted that its ongoing project of Andaman in Penang and land reclamation of Seri Tanjung Pinang Phase 2A (STP2A) have been the main contributors to the higher revenue in the current financial year.

The group is allocating about RM200 million for FY2024 in capital expenditure for the land reclamation project for Andaman.

The Andaman development involves 307.561 hectares (ha) of reclaimed land.

"Phase 1 is almost completed while Phase 2 is expected to be completed by December 2028. We expected the gross development value for Andaman to be around RM60 billion over 30 years.

"We are also targeting about RM17 billion of launches for Andaman in the next 15 years," Tee said.

He added that the outlook for the E&O projects has remained positive with foreign buyers, especially from Hong Kong and Singapore, adding to the support from local buyers. - Bernama