BBR expects negative impact on half- and full-year results due to Covid-19

CONSTRUCTION and property development firm BBR Holdings on Monday said that the Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in lower overall business volume for the group, and that it expects a negative impact on the group's financial performance for the half-year ending June 30, 2020 and full financial year ending Dec 31, 2020.

"Although the Singapore government has provided relief and support measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to partially cushion the negative financial impact, there are uncertainties over the extent of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, as well as the group's business operations. The full extent of the Covid-19 impact on the company's financial performance for HY2020 and FY2020 cannot be ascertained at this point," it said.

In light of the challenging and deteriorating business environment, BBR said its priority is to ensure that it has enough liquidity to sustain its business operations and ride through this downturn while being prudent about managing its cash flow; it will also explore financing options, such as the newly announced government-assisted loan.  

It also said that it has suspended construction activities for all its ongoing projects in Singapore during the circuit-breaker period, and will be making submissions to obtain approval from the  Building and Construction Authority (BCA) to restart the projects while addressing requirements to maintain workplace safety.

Meanwhile, activities at the project sites have been limited to housekeeping, safety and environmental maintenance works.

As for the group's property development business, Covid-19 has also caused a delay in the sales launch of its development, The Linq @ Beauty World. Constructon activity there was suspended after Malaysia imposed its Movement Control Order on March 18, 2020. Although this was slightly eased by the Conditional Movement Control Order which kicked in on May 4 (under which certain industries and businesses were allowed to resume operation under strict conditions), the strict regulations made it difficult for construction workers to return to work.

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"All workers (both foreign and local) will have to go through Covid-19 screening test before they are able to resume work. Due to the large number of foreign workers required to be screened for Covid-19, most of the sites were not ready to resume work. With the implementation of Recovery Movement Control Order on June 10, 2020 (under which most businesses were permitted to resume operations without much restriction and which even permitted inter-state travel),  the construction activities at all project sites have been slow to start," it said.