See Hup Seng
Investor Relations
Financial Summary
Half Year Results Ended 30 June 2023
Financials Archive
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Condensed Interim Consolidated Statement of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income
Condensed Interim Statements of Financial Positions
Review of performance of the Group
Overview
For the first half ended 30 June 2023 (“1H23”), the Group revenue dropped 4.7% to S$39 million from S$40.9 million and improved in net profit attributable to equity holders of S$2.2 million from S$1.4 million a year ago.
As at 30 June 2023, the Group’s total equity was S$131.5 million from S$131.4million as at 31 December 2022. The Group has cash and cash equivalents balance of S$51.2 million. The Group is in a net cash position with low debt-to-total equity ratio of 10.4%.
Condensed Interim Consolidated Statement of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income
Revenue
The Group’s revenue dropped by 4.7% to S$39.0 million in 1H23, compared with S$40.9 million in the corresponding period last year. This was mainly due to reduce in project revenue from E&C segment and Corrosion Prevention segment in 1H23, but was offset by the improved in Solar Energy.
Corrosion Prevention (“CP”) segment
Revenue for the CP segment decreased by 14% to S$8.4million in 1H23 from S$9.9 million. The CP segment revenue in the previous corresponding period was impacted by lesser order from site & blasting jobs.
Engineering & Construction (“E&C”) segment
E&C segment revenue dropped in the current half of FY2023 as compared with FY2022 mainly due to the near to completion of the project, as a result, revenue for the E&C segment decreased by 26% down to S$19.8 million in 1H23 from S$26.8 million in 1H22.
Solar Energy segment
Revenue for the Solar Energy segment raised to S$11million in 1H23 from S$4.3 million in 1H22 due to securing more EPC progressive projects contributing to the revenue.
Gross Profit and Gross Profit Margin
The Group’s gross profit decreased by 11.7% from S$8.4 million in 1H22 to S$7.4 million in 1H23, in line with the decrease in sales for both E&C and CP segment for the period but was fortunately offset by the improved performance in Solar Energy segment.
E&C segment
Gross profit for E&C segment decreased slightly from S$4.2 million in 1H22 to S$4.0 million in 1H23. This was largely driven by several high value projects commenced in 1H23 which generated better margin as compared to the previous period.
CP segment
CP segment recorded a dropped of 50.9% in gross profit to S$1.8 million in 1H23 on the back of the dropped in revenue of 14.5% for S$3.6 million mainly due to the more competitive pricing for the shipyard with increasing direct costs.
Solar Energy segment
For 1H23, gross profit improved from S$0.6 million to S$1.7 million was driven by both EPC works being carried out and higher inverter sales during the period. The gross margin increased slightly from 13.7% in 1H22 to 15.4% in 1H23.
Other Income
Other income increased by 3% year-on-year from S$1.3 million in 1H22 to S$1.4 million in 1H23.
Selling, Distribution, Administrative and Other Operating Expenses (OPEX)
Total OPEX in 1H23 was 19% lower than the corresponding period in the previous year.
Total OPEX decrease year-on-year from S$7.4 million in 1H22 to S$6 million in 1H23.
Selling and distribution expenses remains constant with 1H22 caused by increased in travelling expense but offset by decreases in advertisement costs.
Administrative expenses dropped slightly by 4% to S$3.5 million from S$3.7 million mainly due to higher staff-related expenses in line with the increase in business activities as the result of the progressive lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions.
Other operating expenses decreased significantly by 35% mainly due to lower rental of container office, depreciation of revalued property, plant and equipment and other indirect costs related to business activities.
Finance Costs
Finance costs were higher at S$0.45 million in 1H23 largely due to increase in interest rate of term loan & interest charge for trust receipts.
Share of Associate’ Results
For 1H23, share of loss from associated company was S$237 as compared to a loss of S$256,000. The decreased was due to lesser loss incurred by associated company.
Condensed Interim Statements of Financial Positions
Non-current assets decreased slightly by S$0.3 million mainly due to depreciation amounting to S$1.8 million and offset by the addition to assets of S$1.4 million. The increase in non-current receivable was mainly due to the favorable movement of USD.
Current assets decreased by S$0.2 million from S$100.4 million as at 31 Dec 2022 to S$100.2 million as at 30 June 2023. This was largely attributed to:
- Decrease in contract assets mainly due to number of major projects are substantially completed by EC in FY2022.
- Increase in trade receivables mainly due to increase in progress billing in June 2023 by EC segment, increase in sales by CP and Solar segment in June 2023.
- Decrease in cash and bank balances mainly due to the purchase of corporate notes amounting to S$5.3mil to earn higher interest as well as repayment of term loans and trust receipts.
- Purchase of S$5.4Mn listed corporate 5.4% fixed rate notes due on 20 July 2023. Subsequently, this corporate note was fully redeemed on the due date.
Current liabilities of the Group decreased to S$23.6 million from S$27.6 million as at 31 Dec 2021. This was largely attributed to:
- Increase in trade payables and accruals of $4 million mainly due to lesser utilization of trade financing which indirectly decreases in amount due to bankers.
- Decrease in term loan and lease liabilities are due to repayment during the period.
- Decrease in other amount due to bankers are due to repayment during the period as well as lower utilization of trust receipts.
- Increase slightly in contract liabilities mainly due to recognition of deferred revenue for project in E&C.
Non-current liabilities increased mainly due to reclassification of term loan.
Shareholders’ equity decreased marginally to S$131.10 million as at 30 June 2023 from S$131.12 million as at 31 December 2022. The decrease was largely attributed to the dividend payout S$2.14 million but offset by the profit for the year.
Condensed Interim Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows
During 1H23, the Group recorded a net cash outflow of S$8.2 million due to: -
- Net cash from operating activities of S$4.6 million with the changes in working capital of S$0.82 million.
- Net cash used in investing activities amounted to S$7.1 million in 1H23 mainly due to capital expenditure and purchase of corporate fixed notes for the Group.
- Net cash used in financing activities in 1H23 was mainly for the dividend payout of $2.14 million and the repayment of trust receipts of $2.3 million and repayment of term loan of S$1.2 million.
After taking into account the above net cash flows and net foreign currency translation adjustments, the Group’s cash and cash equivalents as at 30 June 2023 stood at a healthy sum of S$51.7 million.
Commentary
The World economic outlook updated on 25 July 2023 by IMF publised that the global growth is projected to fall from an estimated 3.5% in 2022 to 3.0% in both 2023 and 2024. The global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian’s invasion is slowing amid widening divergences among economic sectors and region.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore, in it’s Annual Report 2022/2023 published on 5 July 2023 forecast Singapore’s GDP growth to ease from 3.6% in 2022 to 0.5%-2.5% in 2023. The Singapore economy has slowed discernibly since the last quarter of 2022, weighted down by weakness in the trade-related sector amid the global manufacturing downturn. The deep retraction in the global electronics industry and banking stresses abroad have dampened Singapore’s growth prospect.
In an article publised on Jun 2, 2023 in BT, BCA tender price index has risen 30.8 per cent between 2019 and 2022, Prices rose further 3.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year. The revenue of constructions companies in Singapore have improved as work has resumed and pandemic-era supply chain issues eased. But even so, pre-pandemic contracts and other headwind have continued to pressure their bottom lines.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announced on 25 May 2023 that the Singapore economy grew by 0.4 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter of 2023, moderating from the 2.1 per cent expansion in the previous quarter. The construction sector expanded by 7.2 per cent year-on-year, extending the 10.0 per cent growth in the preceding quarter. Both public and private sector construction output increased during the quarter as Construction companies clear pandemic backlog. Since the Economic Survey of Singapore released in February, the performance of advanced economies such as the US and Eurozone has been more resilient than expected, supported by domestic services demand. Nonetheless, their growth outlook for the rest of the year remains weak.
For the E&C segment, the steel engineering business is on track with its existing contracts on hand, our engineering steel contracts will be looking towards completion and we may be able to take on more jobs at the same time targeting on our Design Studio business to get more orders in the next 12 months.
On the Solar Energy segment, our roof-top solar projects and distribution of solar panels together with its peripherals are expected to see yet improvements with more orders expected in Singapore and Indonesia when we tap on tabbing the growth on this part of the industry, whether worldwide or local. Singapore’s wholesale electricity market has seen higher price volatility for sustained periods, as a result, it leads to an increase in demand for solar systems for substitution. As for the solar development project, we erred on the side of caution and have not committed to any new projects though we are actively looking at prospects.
For the CP segment, with post pandemic, and increasing costs & merger of our big customers, we will be exercising caution in taking on more order to manage effectively in the competitive pricing environment.
Overall, the Group will continue to exercise prudence in our operations as we remain cautious as the result of the global economic challenges, ongoing geopolitical developments and the continuing impact of escalating cost with reopening of the economy post pandemic.