Venture Corp Q1 net profit up 8.6% despite pricing pressures

VENTURE Corporation's first-quarter net profit rose 8.6 per cent to S$90.9 million despite pricing pressures and intense competition in the business environment.

For the period ended March 31, revenue rose 8.5 per cent to S$928.8 million, on the back of broad-based growth across the group's portfolio of technology domains, as well as "solid execution" of its customers' programmes, the company announced on Thursday.

The electronics manufacturing services firm said it managed to sustain its profitability due to its "differentiated" engineering capabilities and continuous lean initiatives to drive productivity gains, along with "astute" cost management.

Its financials show that it managed to maintain or reduce most of its expenses, except for its employee benefits expense, which rose 1.4 per cent to S$81.6 million.

The company called its Q1 performance a "positive momentum" and said it remains "vigilant to the overhang of several macroeconomic factors, such as protracted trade tensions and the global economic slowdown".

These factors have led to mixed business sentiment across the group's diversified customer base, it added.

"Some customers' product transitions might introduce near-term volatility to the group's performance, but this will be mitigated by customers' new product launches in the second half of 2019. Contribution from new customers won in past years is also expected to grow year-on-year in 2019," it said.

The counter closed 10 cents lower at S$19.29 on Thursday before the release of the results.

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