Singapore CityDev says Q4 net profit up 77 pct

SINGAPORE Feb 25 (Reuters) - City Developments (CTDM.SI), Southeast Asia's second-largest property firm, posted on Thursday a 76.7 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, helped by strong Singapore residential property prices. CityDev reported a net profit of S$176.7 million ($125.4 million) for the three month ended December, up from S$100 million a year ago. The earnings beat the S$131 million consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

CityDev's net profit for the full year rose 2.1 percent to S$593.4 million, above the consensus estimate of S$548 million. The company said it achieved its highest full-year revenue and second-highest profit since its inception in 1963.

Chairman Kwek Leng Beng said in a statement that the group expected to remain profitable over the next 12 months.

The company, which has a market capitalisation of around S$9.4 billion, controls 53 percent of London-listed Millennium & Copthorne (MLC.L), which manages or owns over 120 hotels around the world.

Millennium & Copthorne last week reported a 20 percent fall pretax profit for 2009 but said business had improved since the end of the year. [ID:nLDE61H211] (Reporting by Harry Suhartono; Editing by Valerie Lee)