Australia's Scentre Group set for best day in over 2 mths on strong FY results

Scentre

21/02/2024 02:10

(Updates with Citi note)
    ** Shares of Scentre Group  SCG.AX  rise as much as 3% to
A$3.070, set for best day since Dec. 14 - if current trends hold
    ** Property developer reports FY profit after tax (excluding
unrealised fair value movements) attributable of A$1.07 bln
($700.52 mln), up 16.7%
    ** Logs 2.1% increase in FY revenue to A$2.51 bln
    ** Co forecasts "distributions are expected to be at least
17.20 AU cents per security in 2024", slightly ahead of Citi and
Visible Alpha consensus expectations
    ** Brokerage Citi says momentum from pickup in sales volumes
from the middle of October 2023 has continued into the early
part of 2024
    ** Citi retains target price of A$2.95/shr and "Neutral"
rating on stock
    ** Stock down about 0.3% this year as of last close

($1 = 1.5260 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee and Shivangi Lahiri in
Bengaluru)
 ((Rajasik.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com;))