Homebuilders such as Centex Corp. and Pulte Homes Inc. aim to survive an industrywide unraveling by selling houses at bargain prices, slashing jobs and scrapping growth plans. But as the housing downturn worsens, experts say at least a few major U.S. homebuilders may end up bankrupt. Builders constructed more than 2 million housing units nationwide in 2005, the year the boom peaked. So far this year, housing starts have fallen to an annual rate of 1.2 million units through September, and economists expect the number to drop to an annual rate of 1 million by mid-2008. .

13-11-2007: BCHB 3Q profit breaches RM1b

KUALA LUMPUR: Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd's net profit surged 152.8% to RM1.03 billion for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2007 from RM408.2 million a year earlier, mainly due to a RM628 million gain from the sale of its insurance businesses.

For the nine months to Sept 30, its net profit more than doubled to RM2.31 billion from RM1.06 billion a year earlier, resulting in a surge of earnings per share to 69.6 sen from 33.6 sen.

BCHB said even excluding the gain on sale of its insurance businesses (100% of its general insurance and 49% of its life and takaful), the group's nine-month net profit of RM1.68 billion exceeded its 2006 full- year profit of RM1.5 billion.

Revenue for the period rose to RM7.03 billion from RM4.21 billion a year earlier. BCHB said the group's annualised net return on equity for the nine-month period was 22.2%, exceeding its 2007 ROE target of 18%.