SINGAPORE (Feb 28): Far East Group crawled out of the red with full-year earnings of $0.4 million for the FY17 ended December, compared to losses of $1.2 million posted a year ago.
This was mainly due to a 5.8 percentage point increase in gross profit margin to 30.4% for FY17, on the back of write-back of stocks provision during the year.
This led to a 17.2% rise in gross profit to $11.3 million in FY17, from $9.6 million a year ago.
Revenue fell 5.2% to $37.1 million in FY17, from $39.2 million a year ago.
This was mainly due to lower sales from Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia markets, amid decline in revenue across all business segments.
In FY17, revenue from its commercial and light industrial (refrigeration) segment fell 3.5% to $32.3 million; revenue from its residential and commercial (air-conditioning) segment dropped 5.8% to $3.8 million; and revenue from its oil, marine and gas (refrigeration and air-conditioning) segment tumbled 37.4% to $1.1 million.
As at end December, cash and cash equivalents stood at $4.6 million.
Far East Group has recommended a final dividend of 0.18 cent per share for FY17. No final dividend was declared a year ago.
Looking forward, the group says it intends to focus more on research and development, including offering of products using natural gases such as carbon dioxide to minimise the carbon footprint.
It adds that it is also working on other developments to lead the group into a new level of technological competiveness in FY18.
Shares of Far East Group last closed at 8 cents on Jan 31.
