Strong earnings in China and Southeast Asia have helped boost operating profit for Japanese developer Aeon Mall to about ¥33 billion (US$293 million) for the nine months to the end of November.
This is up about 10 per cent on the same period a year earlier, and would be a record. Its previous high was ¥30.1 billion in 2013as reported. Operating revenue rose 7 per cent to a little more than ¥210 billion.
Its Southeast Asian business has come out of the red, with overseas losses shrinking to nearly ¥1 billion for the period from ¥2.9 billion previously. Thirteen of the company’s 19 malls in China and Southeast Asia turned a profit, up from eight out of 17 a year before.
In Japan, sales rose 3 per cent for specialty-store tenants in its malls offering household products, food and other items, boosting rent revenue correspondingly.
Aeon Mall’s operating profit for the full year through February is expected to rise 11 per cent to ¥50 billion on a 9 per cent gain in operating revenue to ¥295 billion.