Sapphire posts 2015 profit of S$6.5m, boosted by Ranken acquisition

INFRASTRUCTURE firm Sapphire Corporation reported a net profit of S$6.5 million for its 2015 financial year ended Dec 31, a jump from S$138,000 a year ago.

Revenue doubled to S$116.4 million.

The company had sold its steel business and bought China rail transit engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm Ranken Infrastructure.

Revenue from Ranken was recognised for the fourth quarter onwards.

"Over the last five months, Ranken secured railway infrastructure contracts with a combined worth of 1.3 billion yuan (S$279 million), resulting in a healthy order book for Ranken of approximately 2 billion yuan as of now," Sapphire said.

In the next 12 months, Sapphire plans to significantly scale up Ranken's production capacity for its EPC business relating to civil engineering projects for metro, urban rail transit and other major land transport infrastructure.

No dividend was declared, similar to a year ago.

Sapphire last traded at S$0.099 a share.