Soilbuild remains in the red with S$4.1m Q4 net loss on arbitration payout

FOURTH-QUARTER net loss for Soilbuild Construction Group widened to S$4.1 million from a net loss of S$2.7 million in the previous year, the group said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Wednesday.

This was largely due to higher cost of sales for S$5.3 million incurred following the grant of arbitration award from an arbitration by its subsidiary against a sub-contractor.

The amount goes to paying the sub-contractor, damages previously deemed receivable and interest, prolongation cost and legal fees.

Without this, gross profit would have been S$4.7 million, as opposed to the S$2 million gross loss the same quarter a year ago.

For the three months ended Dec 31, revenue surged 46.9 per cent to S$78.2 million from the previous year. The expansion in revenue was due to the progress of ongoing projects such as 68 Residence, Rosehill Residence, 164 Kallang Way, 171 Kallang Way and Bedok Food City, it said.

Loss per share widened to 0.61 Singapore cent from a loss per share of 0.41 Singapore cent in the preceding year.

Soilbuild said in a statement: "The group expects the demand for construction activities in the local market to remain competitive. Continual efforts will be extended to tender for more new construction projects. Concurrently, the group will also implement strategies to secure more supply-and-delivery contracts for precast components."

Its order book as at the end of the year stood at S$400.7 million.

Soilbuild closed unchanged on Wednesday at S$0.101.