THE absence of a one-time charge for its speciality vehicle business in China gave a fillip to results for Singapore Technologies (ST) Engineering for its third quarter.

Net profit leapt 67.5 per cent to S$128.4 million from the previous year, the group said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Wednesday morning.

For the three months ended Sept 30, revenue was little changed at S$1.62 billion, from S$1.61 billion the previous year. Higher revenue in the aerospace and electronics segments had been offset by lower contribution from the marine and land systems segments, said ST Engineering.

The bottom line had been boosted by lower distribution and selling expenses as well as other operating expenses, due to the absence of a one-time charge. ST Engineering had made an impairment of S$61.1 million for the same quarter last year for its speciality vehicle business in China.

Net profit for the nine months ended Sept 30 was up 9.3 per cent to S$343.4 million, while revenue inched up 1.1 per cent to S$4.92 billion.

Earnings per share rose to 4.12 Singapore cents from 2.47 Singapore cents in the previous year. Net asset value per share stood at 67.17 Singapore cents as at the end of the quarter, higher than the 63.39 Singapore cents as at the end of the same quarter a year ago.

The group announced about S$1.1 billion worth of contracts during the quarter, bringing the order book to S$13.3 billion - of which about S$1.2 billion will be delivered in the remaining months of this year.

ST Engineering president and CEO Vincent Chong said that the firm's order book continues to be strong, and it maintains its outlook of comparable revenue and profit before tax for the year.

ST Engineering shares closed 1.7 per cent or six Singapore cents lower at S$3.41 on Wednesday, after the results were released in the morning.