Koh Brothers Group has reported higher revenue of $196.6 million for 1HFY2023, as it booked more sales from its property development activities.
However, the company, which started in construction, suffered from higher costs in labour and materials. It also did not benefit from one-off disposal gains recognised in the year earlier period.
As such, the company has reported a loss of $16 million for 1HFY2023, versus earnings of $5 million for the year earlier.
As at June 30, the company's net asset value per share was 65.84 cents, vs 70.04 cents as at Dec 31 2022.
“We are focusing on recovering the cost of performing the variation orders from customers while also closely monitor the progress and cost for our projects,” says managing director and group CEO Francis Koh.
Going forward, Koh Brothers expects the construction divisision, which has an order book of $650.7 million, and the real estate division, to both remain challenging, no thanks to an increasingly competitive environment, high interest rates, energy, material, manpower, operating and development costs.
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In its separate announcement, Koh Brothers Eco Engineering, a separately-listed subsidiary of Koh Brothers Group, has similarly reported a loss as well.
For its 1HFY2023, Koh Brothers Eco reported a loss of $9.6 million, vs earnings of $1.2 million in the year earlier period.
Revenue was down 12% y-o-y to $90.1 million from lower revenue recognition from its on-going construction projects, most of which were near completion.
Koh Brothers closed at 14 cents on Aug 4, unchanged for the day, and up 3.57% year to date.
Koh Brothers Eco closed at 2.9 cents on Aug 4, unchanged for the day and down 27.5% year to date.
