Ezion Q3 earnings up 29% on jump in revenue

Singapore

OFFSHORE marine group Ezion Holdings on Thursday posted a 29 per cent year-on-year surge in third-quarter net profit to US$49.2 million.

The better earnings for the July-September quarter came on the back of a 24.5 per cent rise in revenue to US$94.9 million from US$76.2 million, mainly due to chartering contribution from deployment of additional units of the group's service rigs.

Cost of sales and servicing rose by 17.8 per cent to US$46.5 million, resulting in a 31.8 per cent climb in gross profit to US$48.4 million.

The three months saw "other income" more than trebling to US$5.9 million from US$1.94 million. This was "mainly contributed by higher foreign exchange gain and fee charged to joint ventures".

Net share of results of associates and jointly-controlled entities fell 30 per cent fall to US$5.7 million.

This was mainly due to the consolidation of jointly controlled entities that had become fully-owned subsidiaries.

Earnings per share improved to 3.63 US cents from 2.75 US cents. No dividend was recommended, unchanged from a year ago.

Ezion said that while there was recent weakness in oil prices, the management "continues to observe the requirement on assets and services related to platform and well related works in the group's existing markets" such as Asia Pacific, Middle East, West Africa and Europe.

The group said that it will continue to focus its effort on growing its service rig division.

With the successful restructuring of its port and marine supply base business in Australia with AusGroup Limited in the fourth quarter, Ezion will have a strengthened balance sheet and management focus to further grow this business.

Ezion expects more of its service rigs to be deployed in the fourth quarter and will also endeavour to look for opportunity to make strategic acquisition to further enhance its business.

Shares in Ezion, which on Thursday morning requested an immediate share trading halt pending an announcement, were last traded on Wednesday at S$1.47 per share.