Reports » Singapore

Singapore stock market and companies daily report (Soup Restaurant, Hiap Hoe, Tiger Airways) (February 19, 2013)

Contributed by Shares Investment

Soup Restaurant FY12 Profits Surge On Disposal Gain
For the full year ended 31 December 2012, Soup Restaurant Group posted an 86.1 percent year-on-year jump in its net profit to $4.2 million from $2.3 million a year ago. This was mainly driven by $3.4 million in the gain from disposal of Y.E.S F&B Group, which is the owner of the Dian Xiao Er chain. Soup Restaurant had sold off its 51 percent stake Y.E.S F&B Group following a lawsuit with the founders of the roast duck chain that was eventually settled out of court. Revenue for the 12 months declined 14.3 percent due to the absence of revenue stream from its disposed operation. However, its continuing operations fared well with help from three new outlets, pushing revenue and earnings higher by 6.1 percent and 126.9 percent respectively. The company had declared dividend of $0.0115, of which $0.008 is special dividend, for the second half of FY12. This brings total dividend for FY12 to $0.015.
Significance: Soup Restaurant said it remains cautious about the overall business environment in which it operates. The challenges it expects to face, besides intense competition among the food and beverage players, include manpower shortages and rising operating costs.

Hiap Hoe Shares Down Despite Stronger Performance
Shares of property developer Hiap Hoe opened $0.02 lower at $0.705 in spite of an improved performance for the year ended 31 December 2012. On a year-on-year basis, revenue rose 6.8 percent to $145.7 million while earnings was up 22 percent at $57.9 million. The company attributed the growth to cost savings achieved in the construction of its joint-venture projects, The Beverly and the hotel-cum-commercial complex. Gross profit margin for the year increased 5.5 percentage points to 39.6 percent. The company ended the year in a stronger market position with total shareholder equity standing at $305.3 million, a 21.4 percent increase from $251.4 million over the previous financial year. Among the company’s residential property, The Beverly had a take-up rate of 91 percent as at end December, while Skyline 360° is 64 percent sold, and Waterscape at Cavanagh, 75 per cent. In its hotel segment, Days Hotel Singapore at Zhongshan Park commenced operations at end-2011 while Ramada Singapore at Zhongshan Park is expected to obtain its temporary occupation permit later in the second quarter. A final dividend per share of $0.005 has been proposed.
Significance: Hiap Hoe is presently adopting a prudent approach towards its property sales, joint-venture initiatives as well as land acquisition programmes to ensure that it remains resilient in light of the anti-speculation measures implemented by the government.

January Passenger Load Factor Improves For Tiger Airways
In an operating statistics report filed with the Singapore Exchange yesterday after market closed, budget carrier Tiger Airways Holdings saw its overall passenger load factor in January improve 8.9 percentage points to 84.4 percent from a year ago. This came on the back of a 34 percent rise in traffic to 1 billion revenue passenger-kilometres and a 19.9 percent growth in capacity to 1.2 billion available seat-kilometres. The number of passengers carried soared 42.5 percent to 664,000 passengers. The increase in traffic for both Tiger Singapore and Tiger Australia outpaced the increase in capacity. Tiger Singapore saw a 10.1 percentage points improvement in its passenger load factor while Tiger Australia posted a 3.1 percentage points improvement.
Significance: The statistics signal more positivity for Tiger Airways which ended a string of seven consecutive quarters of losses and returned to profitability in the last three months of 2012. Still, the company faces a challenging operating environment in Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.