SINGAPORE (Sept 12): Synagie Corporation reported wider losses of $3.4 million in 1H18 compared to $1.1 million a year ago on higher administrative expenses that included IPO-related overheads, among other one-off costs.
This comes despite more than double revenue of $6.9 million compared to $3 million in 1H17, driven mainly by higher online sales of brand partner products, an increase in the number of the group’s brand partners as compared to a year ago, as well as new revenue contribution from its Insurtech business segment.
In line with the revenue growth, cost of sales doubled to $5.1 million from $2.8 million previously.
Gross profit margin improved to 25.8% from 23.8% in the previous year due to higher margin contribution from the Insurtech business.
Notably, administrative expenses more than doubled to $3.4 million from $1.2 million in 1H17. This mainly comprised one-off expenses of $1.7 million attributed to IPO expenses, amortisation of convertible notes, and professional fees incurred for the acquisition of the group’s TPA subsidiary.
See: Synagie Corp eyes net proceeds of $9.8 mil from Catalist IPO at 27 cents per share
Excluding the one-offs, Synagie says its loss for the period under review would have been $1.7 million instead.
Looking ahead, the group says it intends to further expand into the Southeast Asian region beginning with the Philippines by end-2018, followed by Vietnam in 2019.
Clement Lee, executive director and CEO of Synagie, says the group intends to continue bringing in new brand partners, both multinational companies and increasingly, more small- to medium-enterprises.
“Our recent collaboration with United Overseas Bank (UOB) for example, allows their Singapore-based SMR clients to utilise our plug-and-play solution to fulfil their e-commerce requirements quickly at a lower cost, thus allowing them to focus on increasing their sales. We are also constantly enhancing our Synagie Platform to cater to our customers’ evolving needs as we expand further into the SE Asia region,” he adds.
Shares in the group closed flat at 19 cents on Wednesday.
