Broadway Industrial Group (BIG) has reported earnings of $7.5 million in the 1HFY2022 ended June, 4.7% lower than earnings of $7.8 million in the same period the year before.
Revenue increased by 8.1% y-o-y to $228.4 million due to the higher average selling price (ASP) of its hard disk drive (HDD) products. The higher ASP was, in turn, attributable to a shift in the group’s product mix from personal and mobile computing segments to high performance enterprise segment. That said, volume fell by 20.4% y-o-y in the 1HFY2022.
Gross profit for the period increased by 6.3% y-o-y to $15.6 million. Gross profit margin (GPM) fell 0.2 percentage points y-o-y to 6.8%.
Other income plunged by 99.2% y-o-y to $8,000. This was due to the unrealised fair value losses on financial derivatives, loss on disposal of property, plant and equipment and headcount redundancy costs from the continuing productivity gain in the manufacturing operations. Other income in the 1HFY2022 comprised mainly foreign exchange gain, scrap income, government grants, whereas other income in the 1HFY2021 comprised the same, except it was offset by redundancy costs.
Profit for the period fell by 2.3% y-o-y to $7.2 million on a higher income tax expense of $554,000.
Earnings per share (EPS) for the 1HFY2022 fell by 2.2% y-o-y to 1.64 cents.
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The group’s net asset value (NAV) per share increased by 5.8% q-o-q to 20.05 cents as at June 30.
Cash and cash equivalents as at June 30 stood at $29.9 million.
No interim dividend was declared for the period, compared to the 0.5 cent interim dividend declared in the 1HFY2021.
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In its outlook statement, the group says it remains “cautiously optimistic” about the longer-term prospects of its HDD business amid the uncertain global outlook, the Covid-19-related lockdowns in China and the correction in the HDD industry. This is as the “demand for mass storage, particularly in the high performance enterprise and nearline HDD products, are expected to remain strong and growing”.
In line with its business plans, the group’s robotics business has broadened its portfolio of products to service robots, including delivery robots and disinfection robots. Beside China, these robots are now available in several South East Asia countries. It adds that its business growth plan in China will continue to be affected by the Covid-19 lockdown in the country.
Furthermore, BIG says it remains on the lookout for other diversification business opportunities.
Shares in BIG closed 0.1 cent lower or 0.62% down at 16.1 cents on Aug 10.
