The board of directors of the Wing On Company International Limited announced preliminary review of the Group's unaudited consolidated management accounts for the year ended 31 December 2017, the Group expects to record an increase of approximately 160% in the amount of profit attributable to shareholders for the year ended 31 December 2017 as compared to that for the corresponding period in 2016. Such substantial increase is mainly attributable to the increase in the valuation gains on the Group's investment properties for the year ended 31 December 2017 as compared to that for the corresponding period in 2016. It is also expected that the Group's underlying profit attributable to shareholders, which excludes valuation gains on the Group's investment properties and related deferred tax thereon, for the year ended 31 December 2017 will be better than that for the corresponding period in 2016 by approximately 25%. The Directors believe that the expected net increase in the Group's underlying profit attributable to shareholders for the year is primarily due to the following: Investment in trading securities and derivative financial instruments The gain from investment in trading securities and derivative financial instruments is expected to be approximately HKD 97.0 million as compared to HKD 17.5 million for the year ended 31 December 2016. Share of profit of an associate The Group is expected to record a share of profit from the associate of approximately HKD 20.0 million as compared to a loss of HKD 26.8 million for the year ended 31 December 2016. Department Store operations The operating profit from the Group's department store operations is expected to be approximately HKD 115.0 million as compared to HKD 151.5 million for the year ended 31 December 2016, affected by the decline in business revenue due to the unseasonably warm weather conditions in the first quarter of 2017 which affected the sales of winter goods, and slow recovery in customer spending during the remainder of the year.