CWT posts 28% rise in Q1 net profit

LOGISTICS player CWT Limited on Tuesday posted a first quarter net profit of S$30.2 million, up 28 per cent year on year, lifted by strong performances from its commodity marketing and logistics businesses.

Revenue for the three months at end March 2017 surged 39 per cent year-on-year to S$2.6 billion, largely driven by its commodity marketing segment which recorded higher trading volume at significantly higher commodity prices over the same period a year ago.

The Singapore-listed company said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange (SGX) that its logistics business also returned improved profit attributable to the warehousing and commodity logistics business, even though its engineering services operations softened due to weaker demand and its financial services arm weakened due to fewer structured trade opportunities despite stronger brokerage services.

Correspondingly, earnings per share in Q1 came in at 5.03 Singapore cents, up from 3.95 cents a year ago.

Cost of sales grew 41 per cent to S$2.5 billion.

CWT's net asset value at end March 2017 was 148 Singapore cents, up from 145.6 cents in Dec 31, 2016.

In an update, the company said the construction of CWT mega integrated logistics hub is in progress. Levels 1 and 2 of the warehouse obtained temporary occupation permit (TOP) on Feb 16 this year, while levels 3, 5, 6 and 7 obtained TOP on May 2. It said the warehouse is targeted to complete by the third quarter of the year.

A month ago, CWT had said in an SGX filing that Chinese conglomerate HNA Group had launched a privatisation offer for the company at S$2.33 per share, valuing its roughly 600.3 million shares outstanding at roughly S$1.4 billion in all.