Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering) S63 has reported earnings of $280.6 million for the 1HFY2023 ended June 30, 0.2% higher than the earnings of $280.0 million in the year before.
Earnings per share (EPS) rose by 0.2% y-o-y to 9.01 cents.
Revenue rose by 13.9% y-o-y to $4.86 billion driven by higher contributions across all three of the group’s business segments.
Gross profit rose by 15.5% y-o-y to $980.4 million.
Group ebitda rose 16% y-o-y to $711 million while group ebit increased by 15% y-o-y to $444 million.
Group profit before tax rose by 0.1% y-o-y to $351.4 million in the absence of a one-off pension restructuring gain of $72 million. Adjusting for this and other one-off items, group net profit on a base operating performance basis would have been 26% higher y-o-y at $300 million.
The double-digit growth in revenue and ebitda were also offset by higher finance costs.
Within ST Engineering’s segments, commercial aerospace saw revenue grow by 32% y-o-y to $1.86 billion with aerospace maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and aerostructures & systems reporting higher revenues on a y-o-y basis. Ebit fell by 3% y-o-y to $178 million but stood at its pre-Covid-19 levels supported by a strong base operating performance. Excluding the one-off pension restructuring gain in the 1HFY2022, ebit improved by 60% y-o-y.
In defence & public security, revenue rose by 0.4% y-o-y to $2.12 billion. Its base business revenue – excluding the US Marine’s revenue of $119 million in 1HFY2022 – grew by 6% y-o-y thanks to growth across all of its subsegments. US Marine was divested in the 4QFY2022. Ebit rose by 41% y-o-y to $301 million due partly to a high graded portfolio and margin mix.
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Revenue for urban solutions & Satcom increased by 18% y-o-y to $891 million attributed to higher y-o-y revenue from urban solutions and offset by lower revenue from Satcom. The segment saw an ebit loss of $34 million, deeper than the ebit loss of $12 million in the 1HFY2022. The ebit loss was attributable to a weaker performance from Satcom due to supply chain disruptions, the remaining impact of Covid-19, near-term costs of business restructuring and a one-off loss from the divestment of SatisFy shares.
As at June 30, the group’s order book stood at a record $27.7 billion, of which $4.4 billion is expected to be delivered in the remaining months of 2023.
Cash and cash equivalents as at June 30 stood at $387.1 million.
“Our good performance in the first half demonstrated the strength and resilience of our business portfolio. This is reflected in the strong recovery of the commercial aerospace segment and the strength of the defence & public security segment. Despite near-term challenges in our Satcom sub-segment, decisive steps are being taken to restructure and transform this business to be future ready,” says Vincent Chong, group president and CEO of ST Engineering.
“Consequently, we expect urban solutions & Satcom full-year 2023 segment ebit to be comparable to 2022, supported by a significantly stronger second half 2023 for this segment. The target for TransCore to achieve earnings accretion from the second-year post acquisition remains,” he adds.
The group is also remaining focused on delivering its record order book, says Chong.
A second interim dividend of 4.0 cents per share has been declared. It will be paid out on Sept 1.
Shares in ST Engineering closed 2 cents higher or 0.54% up at $3.74 on Aug 10.
