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Singapore stock market and companies daily report (Wilmar International, Shipping Industry) (March 01, 2010)

Contributed by Shares Investment

By Shares Investment

Wilmar Books Record FY09 Net Profit
SGX-listed palm oil giant, Wilmar International, has announced a record net profit of US$1.88b, up 23% for FY09 ended Dec 31, 2010, thanks to an exceptional net gain of US$167m booked in 3Q09 from the sale of new shares in Wilmar China to Kerry Hldgs, Great Cheer and Zheng Ge Ru Foundation. Excluding these gains, net profit was US$1.7b, up 12% on year. Full year sales rose 18% to US$23.9b as a result of higher average selling prices in the first 7 months of FY08.
Despite a 8.5% rise in administrative expenses for FY09 due to a 10k man increase in headcount, selling and distribution expenses was almost halved to US$1.58b, due to lower export duties in Indonesia and lower freight charges arising from the acquisition of a 60% stake in Raffles Shipping Corp, which manages Wilmar’s vessels. “Going forward, we will persist with on-going efforts to further improve our operational efficiency through greater integration and economies of scale, and seek attractive investment opportunities to continue growing our group,’ chairman and CEO Kuok Khoon Hong said. The company has announced a final dividend of US$0.05 per share.

Oversupply Of Vessels Set To Hurt Recovery: Moody’s
An oversupply of vessels may obstruct a recovery of the shipping industry, putting pressure on freight rates, the Business Times cited Moody’s Investors Service in a recent report. According to the report, ships currently on order to be built make up about 60% of the existing fleet for dry bulk carriers, or those that transport iron ore, coal and grains, 30% for tankers and 40% for container vessels.
‘Rates in 2010 will be stronger than in 2009, although they will remain well below their long-term averages,’ a vice-president for Moody’s, Marco Vetulli said. ‘Recovery will be slow and the healthy earnings reported by tanker companies in the 2000s will remain elusive for many years.’ For dry bulk segment, the slippage rate was 36% for bulk carriers with 385 actual deliveries versus 602 scheduled as of end-October 2009. The number of delivery delays may accelerate this year. Oversupply in the dry bulk segment may be mitigated by stable Chinese demand, port congestion and scrapping of old vessels though. As for container vessels, the global container fleet is expected to increase by 8% at year-end 2009, while container demand is expected to decline by 9%, Moody’s said, citing forecasters Global Insight.

Key US February Jobs Report Due This Week
Stocks managed a slight advance on Friday last week, as the US dollar’s rally stumbled. The Dow picked up 0.4% to close at 10,325.26. The S&P 500 edged up 0.14% to finish at 1,104.49, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.18% to 2,238.26. In this week, all eyes will be on the February jobs report due out on Friday. ‘That’s the key piece of economic data in the ongoing struggle to determine when the US has finally turned the corner on this recovery,’ says Eric Gimiani, a trader at Quartz Capital Advisors. ‘The housing market is important, as is consumer spending and manufacturing numbers, but until we see jobs growth it will be tough to generate lasting confidence in the economy’s recovery,’ he said. The consensus among Wall Street economists is for 30,000 job losses.
Before then, the Wall Street will have plenty of other important data to sift through – ISM manufacturing report on Monday, February car sales on Tuesday, ISM non-manufacturing data, ADP private sector employment snapshot and the Fed beige book on Wednesday, as well as the pending home sales report on Thursday.