Boustead FY22 earnings fall 73% on absence of one-off gain; proposes final dividend of 2.5 cents per share

SGX-LISTED Boustead reported a 73 per cent drop in FY2022 ending Mar 31 earnings to S$30.6 million from S$113.1 million due to an absence of one-off gain, it said in a bourse filing on Thursday (May 26).

The fall was due to the sale of interests in properties to Boustead Investment Fund in FY2021.

Earnings per share for FY2022 fell 73 per cent to S$0.063 from S$0.233.

The board has proposed a final dividend of 2.5 cents per share subject to shareholders’ approval, bringing the total divided to 4 cents per share.

Revenue for FY2022 fell 8 per cent to S$631.8 million from S$685.7 million due to the impact of inflationary pressures, volatile economic and geopolitical environment and lingering pandemic impact leading to lack of business development opportunities. The energy engineering division revenue fell 43 per cent to S$112.3 million from S$198.4 million on the back of fewer new contracts secured in FY2022 and lower order backlog at the end of FY2021.

The Healthcare division revenue fell 21 per cent to S$12 million from S$15.2 million on the impact of pandemic seeing client prioritise Covid-19 needs rather than rehabilitative care and sport science solutions. Boustead Projects led in revenue contributions, rising 13 per cent to S$339.1 million from S$301.4 million on higher recognition on engineering and construction projects in the first half of FY2022. The geospatial division FY2022 revenue dipped slightly to S$168.3 million from S$170.4 million.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

“FY2022 bore the full brunt of Covid-19 and this was made worse by challenges like supply chain and cost disruptions, inflationary pressures and geopolitical events with impacts that are most deeply felt on our engineering & construction activities. Among our divisions, Geospatial delivered steadfast results while Healthcare continued to underperform and in this respect, we will step up on our efforts to address the challenges faced,” said Wong Fong Fui, chairman and group chief executive officer, Boustead.

Boustead has been awarded about S$193 million in new contracts in FY2022, with travel restrictions making it difficult to conduct business activities. The company expects the situation to improve with normalisation of travel and business activities.

The current order backlog of S$274 million is lower than the S$447 million disclosed in the FY2021 results announcement. Boustead expects the pandemic impact to ease, but the business situation will remain challenging with the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict. Margin pressures are also expected to continue with rising inflation, labour and material costs, and supply chain disruptions.

The company expects to be profitable for FY2023.

“Previous strict cost management measures and a disciplined, prudent and risk-managed approach to capital allocation and investment decisions, will continue to be applied,” said Wong.

Shares of Boustead closed down 0.5 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.96 on Thursday.