SouFun Holdings Profit Rises 23%, Cuts FY Revenue Outlook

(RTTNews) - SouFun Holdings Ltd. (SFUN) Thursday reported a 23 percent rise in profit for the second quarter, on a double-digit revenue growth. Moving ahead, the Chinese real-estate internet portal lowered its revenue outlook for the full year, citing "slowdown in the real estate market in China."

Beijing, China-based SouFun's second-quarter profit rose to $68.2 million or $0.15 per ADS from $55.4 million or $0.13 per ADS last year.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter rose to $0.16 per ADS from $0.15 per ADS last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.14 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

SouFun, which operates China's largest real-estate information website, said revenues grew 16.7 percent to $168.2 million from $144.1 million. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $173.52 million for the quarter.

Revenue growth was driven largely by a 26 percent revenue increase at marketing services. Revenues from e-commerce services rose 8.1 percent, while listing services grew 8.5 percent year-over-year.

"SouFun experienced the slowest-growing quarter since its IPO four years ago." said Vincent Mo, Executive Chairman of SouFun. "Change and transformation are needed, immediately."

Looking forward to the full year, SouFun lowered its revenue outlook to a range of $727.0 million to $739.0 million or a year-over-year increase of between 14 and 16 percent. Analysts currently estimate revenues of $741.98 million. Earlier, the company had expected revenues between $780.0 million and $796.0 million, or a growth of 22.5 to 25 percent.

SouFun said it lowered its outlook to reflect the slowdown in the China real estate market, reduction in fees it charges for listing services, and longer time required for new businesses to contribute significantly.

SouFun declared a cash dividend of $1.00 per share, payable on August 29 to shareholders of record as of August 18.

Further, the company said its President and CEO Richard Jiangong Dai has resigned as he has enrolled in Stanford University for studying full-time. He will remain as a director of the Board. The company has appointed Vincent Tianquan Mo, SouFun's founder and Executive Chairman, as CEO.

SFUN is currently trading at $11.02, up $0.68 or 6.58%, on the Nasdaq.