Boustead Singapore H1 net profit climbs 6% despite lower revenue

BOUSTEAD Singapore on Friday (Nov 11) posted a 6 per cent increase in net profit for the first half year, despite a 27 per cent decline in revenue.

Net profit for the six-month period ended Sep 30 rose to S$22.6 million, from S$21.3 million in the same period last year, mainly due to increased interest income and significant currency exchange gains, as well as reduced overheads and income tax expense.

This represented an increase in earnings per share, rising to S$0.047 for the first half of FY2023, from S$0.044 in H1 FY2022.

An interim dividend of S$0.015 per share was declared, unchanged from a year earlier, as the group noted it has delivered “steady profitability from core businesses and maintained a healthy net cash position”.

The group’s net asset value per share marginally declined to S$0.896 as at Sep 30 from S$0.899 in March 2022, mainly due to dividend payments. Boustead had a net cash position of S$372.2 million or S$0.773 per share at the end of H1 FY2023.

Wong Fong Fui, group chief executive officer of Boustead, said the results were encouraging amid the challenging business environment.

“The healthy order backlog and new contracts awarded since the start of FY2023, with more contracts being secured across both the energy engineering division and real estate division as compared to the whole of FY2022, have strengthened our outlook for the remainder of FY2023 and going into FY2024, especially with the pandemic situation under control,” he said.

Boustead Singapore has been awarded with around S$417 million in new contracts since the start of the financial year, and its current order backlog stands at S$558 million.

The group’s revenue for the first half stood at S$246.9 million, down from S$340.3 million a year earlier, mainly due to decreased revenue contributions from the energy engineering division and the real estate division.

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Boustead Singapore said that after adjusting for other gains and losses, impairments, and government jobs support for a comparative review, net profit for H1 FY2023 would have been 28 per cent lower on year.

Shares of Boustead Singapore rose 0.6 per cent or S$0.005 to close at S$0.79 on Friday, before the announcement.