Rotary Engineering Q1 profit plunges

REACHING completion on some major projects led to a sharp drop in earnings for oil and gas engineering services provider Rotary Engineering in its first quarter.

Net profit for the three months ended March 31 plunged 93 per cent to S$524,000, on the back of a 28 per cent dive in revenue to S$64.55 million from the previous year, it said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Friday.

"The slump in the oil and gas sector industry may or may not have run its course, but indicators suggest that the decline has slowed down. Our balance sheet and cash reserves will ensure that we will weather this cycle," Rotary chairman and managing director Roger Chia Kim Piow said in a statement.

The group said it was using its "wide range" of engineering skills to secure "smaller single discipline" projects within and outside the oil and gas industry. It added it was "exploring opportunities to add to the full spectrum of the liquid bulk storage value chain so as to provide a stable and recurring income stream".

Earnings per share came in at 0.1 Singapore cent for Q1, down from 1.2 Singapore cents in the year-ago period. Net asset value per share was 50.3 Singapore cents as at March 31, 2016, down slightly from 50.9 Singapore cents as at Dec 31, 2015.

Rotary shares closed half a cent up at S$0.38 before its results were out.