SATS Q4 profit slips 1.7% to S$50.7m; chairman to step down

AIRPORT services provider SATS's net profit for the fourth fiscal quarter slipped 1.7 per cent to S$50.7 million, or 4.6 Singapore cents per share, as food solutions revenue declined.

The company is declaring a final dividend of 10 Singapore cents per share, up from nine Singapore cents in fiscal 2015.

Separately, SATS said long-time director Edmund Cheng Wai Ming will step down as a board member and chairman at the end of the company's annual general meeting on July 19.

Mr Cheng, who has been chairman for 13 years, will be replaced by Euleen Goh Yiu Kiang, who is currently an independent director of the company.

SATS's profit for the full year ended March 31, 2016, rose 12.7 per cent to S$220.6 million.

Its fourth-quarter revenue eased 1.8 per cent to S$417.6 million, dragged down by a 7.4 per cent decrease in food solutions revenue, to S$232.3 million, as the business was transferred to joint venture company SATS BRF Food (SBRF) in June 2015.

Excluding the transfer of food distribution revenue to SBRF, revenue would have increased by 6.6 per cent.

For the year ahead, the company expects airline load factors to improve although airline yields remain weak.