Hyflux, Singapore’s biggest water treatment company, posted a 4.7% increase in first-quarter profit

Hyflux, Singapore’s biggest water treatment company, posted a 4.7% increase in first-quarter profit as it reduced spending on raw materials and labour.

Net income climbed to $8 million in the three months ended March 31, from $7.7 million a year earlier, Hyflux said in a statement to the stock exchange today. Operating costs and expenditures fell by about 8%, according to the company, which built Singapore’s first water-recycling plant.

The industrial water sector’s outlook is improving, Hyflux said. Countries such as China and India “impose more stringent water discharge standards and encourage industries to seek alternative sustainable sources of water, such as recycling and desalination,” according to the statement.

Hyflux said its Tuaspring Desalination Plant in the city-state is undergoing testing and commissioning and is scheduled to begin operations in the second half of this year.

Hyflux 2012 net profit up 15% at $61m

Water solutions firm Hyflux posted a 2012 net profit of $61 million, up 15 per cent from a year ago, mainly due to higher contributions from projects in Asia excluding China

Revenue for the year was up 42 per cent at $682 million.

A final dividend of 2.5 cents per share was declared, up from 2.1 cents a year ago.

Hyflux Q3 profit up 15%

Hyflux Ltd on Thursday said its net profit for the fiscal third quarter ended Sept 30 rose 15 per cent year on year to S$14.52 million.

Its turnover rose 77 per cent to S$155.05 million from S$87.72 million a year ago.

Its nine-month profit increased 17 per cent to S$39.71 million from S$33.87 million, on revenue of S$484.39 million.

The 70-per-cent increase in turnover from S$285.61 million a year ago came primarily from higher activities, particularly from projects in Asia, excluding China.

Hyflux's Q2 net profit up 21%

SINGAPORE: Singapore-based water solutions company Hyflux's second quarter net profit grew 21 per cent to S$17.5 million on-year.

Group revenues for the second quarter ended June 30 also hiked 71 per cent to S$190.4 million.

The company's net profit and group revenue for the first half of the year also expanded from 2011.

For the six months ended June 30, net profit rose 15 per cent to S$25.2 million, while revenues shot up 66 per cent to S$329.3 million from the same time last year.

Hyflux attributed the growth to projects in Asia outside of China.

Since its last financial year, Hyflux has adjusted its revenue profile to favour Asia, while decreasing its Middle East & North Africa (MENA) component.

Asia's collective contribution to group revenue was 94 per cent for the first six months in the financial year of 2012, in contrast to 44 per cent during the same period in 2011.

MENA contributions to group revenue on the other hand, declined from 44 per cent to S$19.3 million.

This makes up 6 per cent of group revenue over the same period.

But this does not mean that Hyflux is ditching MENA from sight completely.

Ms Olivia Lum, executive chairman and group CEO of Hyflux said: "The global outlook remains challenging. However, we still see opportunities in the MENA region and we are well positioned to capture these."

Hyflux has also proposed an interim dividend of 0.7 Singapore cents per ordinary share.

- CNA/cc

Arab Spring shrinks Hyflux's 2011 earnings

Water treatment company says cash, order book will help it survive drought

By KENNETH LIM 

PROJECTS that dried up during the Arab Spring last year shrank Hyflux's profit 40 per cent in 2011, but the water treatment specialist expects its cash pile and order book to help it to weather the drought.

The demand is still there. It's just that it's a timing issue, and Hyflux is definitely in the right place and the right sector to benefit. - Olivia Lum, Hyflux CEO

'We have seen our jobs in Libya evaporated, China fiscal and monetary tightening measures and also the euro crisis - all these have contributed to a low showing of the number of projects on the market,' Hyflux chief executive

Olivia Lum said at a results briefing yesterday.
'We have not seen such a dry year before (compared to 2011) as far as seawater desalination projects are concerned,' she added.
Net profit attributable to shareholders fell to $53 million, or 4.3 cents per undiluted share, for the year ended Dec 31, 2011.
The average consensus estimate was for earnings of $47.7 million and earnings per share of 5.6 cents, according to polls by Bloomberg.
Net asset value per share was 60.6 cents as at end-2011, up from 58.6 cents the year earlier.

Singapore-based Hyflux recommended a cash dividend of 2.1 cents per ordinary share.

Maybank Kim Eng analyst James Koh said the results met his expectations.
'The company is very well positioned both in terms of their technical know-how and in terms of their capabilities, in terms of their balance sheet,' he said.
'But the external factor is, I think, still quite challenging for them from an order win and order book kind of perspective. The contracts that went away from the Middle East are not going to be so easily replaced,' he added.

Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) severely cut turnover from the region, while existing projects neared completion. Sales from the region fell about two-thirds.

Tightening policy in China also trimmed sales in the country by 6.7 per cent.

Sales from other markets and Singapore, where Hyflux clinched the $890 million Tuaspring Desalination Plant project, was the only region of growth.

Ms Lum said that going forward, Hyflux will prefer to undertake both the power and water aspects of suitable projects that arise in the future, using its experience in doing the same thing for Tuaspring.
Power and water plants enjoy key synergies, she explained.

Hyflux's order book currently stands at $1.87 billion, with the bulk of it coming out of Singapore and China.

The company also has about $662.4 million in cash, on the back of long- term capital raising in 2011.
That has helped to mostly finance the Tuaspring project, said Hyflux chief financial officer Cho Wee Peng.
Ms Lum said the situation in the Mena region was showing early signs of improvement, and while pockets of opportunity exist, the outlook there remains uncertain.

Asia is expected to be the main growth driver in the near term.

The global outlook also remains uncertain, while higher operating and financing expenses in Singapore could raise short-term costs.

But Hyflux's balance sheet, order book and diversified exposure across three key regions give Ms Lum modest optimism about the year ahead.

'The projects are delayed, but they have not vanished,' Ms Lum said.

'The demand is still there. It's just that it's a timing issue, and Hyflux is definitely in the right place and the right sector to benefit.' she added.

HYFLUX REPORTS S$21.9 MILLION NET PROFIT FOR FIRST HALF

- Record order book of S$2.1 billion


- Maintains interim dividend of 0.67 Singapore cents per ordinary share

- Strong balance sheet after successful issue of S$400 million perpetual preference

By ANGELA TAN


Water solutions company, Hyflux Ltd reported on Thursday that its net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011 fell 47 per cent from a year ago to S$14.53 million.

Revenue fell 21 per cent to S$111.08 million.

For the half year period, net profit fell 35 per cent to S$21.93 million due mainly to higher finance costs, higher tax rates and higherdepreciation and amortisation.

The higher finance costs were the result of increased borrowings to gear up for the development of Singapore's second desalination plant, while a more aggressive amortisation policy accounted for the increased amortisation expenses from S$6.8 million in the first half of FY2010 to S$9.9 million in the first half of FY2011.

Revenue was down 18 per cent at S$197.90 million. This was mainly attributable to the timing difference between the decrease in contributions from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) projects which are nearing completion and the start of construction works for the Tuaspring Desalination Plant in Singapore from the third quarter of 2011.

The group closed the quarter with a record order book of S$2.1 billion.

The board of directors has recommended an interim dividend of 0.67 Singapore cents per share. This is equivalent to the interim dividend for the same period last year of 1 Singapore cent per share, adjusted for the bonus shares issue in December 2010.

Hyflux - Sold $3.30, ROC 17.1%

I have finally decided to redeem my past sin in 2008 today.

Round 7: ROC 17.1%, 721 days, B $2.77 S $3.30