Ley Choon Q4 loss narrows to S$4.1m on lower materials consumption

LEY Choon Group Holdings, which builds underground-utilities infrastructure and road works, saw its net loss narrow to about S$4.1 million for its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2020 from about S$5.8 million a year ago.

It recorded a gross profit of S$0.4 million for the quarter - compared with a gross loss of S$1.8 million the year before - due to a decrease in materials cost as a result of lower consumption of materials for certain ongoing project mix, the Catalist-listed company said in a bourse filing on Tuesday.

Loss per share (LPS) stood at 0.3 Singapore cent for the quarter, compared with an LPS of 0.55 cent a year ago.

Revenue for Q4 fell 16.8 per cent to about S$23.2 million, from S$27.9 million a year ago. This was due to mainly to a fall in revenue from big diameter pipe projects and premix sales by S$5.3 million and S$1.7 million respectively. The fall was partially offset by the increase in revenue from cable turnkey projects and sewer rehabilitation projects by S$1.1 million and S$0.9 million respectively, Ley Choon said.

No dividend was declared for the quarter, unchanged from a year ago.

For the full year ended March 31, net loss narrowed to S$4.6 million compared with S$9.6 million a year ago, while revenue was down 7.8 per cent to S$94.4 million from S$102.4 million for FY2019.

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Ley Choon said it was resuming operations gradually during Phase Two of Singapore's "circuit-breaker" period, but added that the earlier halt of most of its operations could have an impact on its performance for the current financial year.

The impact could be softened, in part, by the government's various Covid-19 support schemes when realised, it added.

Ley Choon said that the group's unfulfilled order book stands at about S$131.7 million to date.

Shares of Ley Choon were trading flat at 1.5 Singapore cents as at 9.09am on Wednesday.