Reports » Singapore

Singapore stock market and companies daily report (RWS, Neptune Orient Lines, CMA, Olam International ) (February 12, 2010)

Contributed by Shares Investment

By Shares Investment

Genting Singapore’s RWS Casino To Open On CNY Day
The casino at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), owned by Genting Singapore, is set to make its debut this coming Sunday, in conjunction with the first day of the Chinese New Year. According to a report by the Business Times, at least 600 tables will be available for gaming, with room to ramp up the table count to the intended 760 eventually, making it one of the biggest in Asia, if not the world.
The casino has about 160,000 sqf dedicated to gaming and will be divided into three sections: mass-market tables and slots; high-roller segment; and super high-roller segment. All Singaporeans and PRs will have to pay a levy of $100 per day or $2,000 per year to enter the casino. RWS says the levy can be bought online at its website or at counters outside the casino. Research analyst Melvyn Boey of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said that he expects the RWS casino to draw 7.6m patrons and generate over 60% of the revenue for the entire integrated resort. The total revenue forecast for Genting Singapore, which owns RWS, is $2.9b for 2010.

NOL Posts FY09 Net Loss Of US$741m
Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) has made a net loss to the tune of US$740.8m for FY09 ended Dec 31, 2009 as revenue dropped by nearly a third to US$6.52b from US$9.29b in FY08 due to the precipitous fall in trade amid the global economic downturn. ‘The 2009 results were disappointing and show the impact of sharp falls in demand and freight rates, especially in the first half of the year,’ said group president and CEO Ronald Widdows. ‘It’s quite likely’ that NOL will continue to make losses in 1H10, he added.
Widdows noted that although during the later part of the year, improved volumes and active capacity management led to higher utilisation rates, earnings remained depressed due to low freight rates which remained at levels below full cost recovery. Revenues across all segments fell, with the key container division racking up a negative US$731m in core EBIT compared to a US$73m gain previously. The logistics and terminals businesses remained profitable though, but they only make up 21% of overall revenue.

CMA Listing Props Up CapitaLand’s 4Q Net Profit
CapitaLand has posted a net profit of $885.7m for 4Q09 ended Dec 31, 2009, thanks to an $899.8m gain from listing a 34.5% stake in CapitaMalls Asia (CMA) late last year. The 4Q09 net profit was also inclusive of $302m in impairments and a net revaluation surplus of $8.8m. Revenue for the quarter rose 18.4% to $833m though, driven by higher revenue recognition for residential development projects in China, Singapore and Vietnam. The company is proposing a $0.05 per share special dividend plus a first and final dividend of $0.055 for FY09.
The 4Q09 bottomline marks the company’s best quarterly bottomline in the whole of last year while FY09 was the 4th consecutive year that CapitaLand has achieved net profit of over $1b. The company’s net debt-to-equity figure has been lowered to 0.09 as at end-2009 compared to 0.47 at end-2008. The figure would be higher at 0.26 now, assuming the $2.2b acquisition of Orient Overseas Developments announced in January.

Olam Sets Best Ever Quarterly Record
Commodities supply chain manager Olam International has declared for the 1st time an interim dividend of $0.02 a share, as it announced its best ever quarterly performance. Net profit for 2Q10 ended Dec 31, 2009 jumped 53.6% to $158.9m, thanks to net exceptional gains of $91m from negative goodwill after the company picked up 2 tomato processing plants at distress asset prices. Excluding the gains, core after-tax profit for the quarter rose 42.8% to $67.8m, Olam’s highest quarterly earnings on record. Sales were 27.3% higher at $2.73b.
CEO Sunny Verghese said the company could pay a dividend midway through the fiscal year because of its strong first half performance and good visibility for the rest of the year. The company expects strong seasonal effects on its performance and typically derives 60 to 70% of its earnings from the second half of the year.