SINGAPORE (May 30): USP Group, formerly known as Unionmet (Singapore), reversed out of the red with earnings of $90,000 for the FY18 ended March, compared to losses of $5.6 million a year ago.
This was mainly due to the absence of a one-off loss of $5.5 million for an exceptional item in FY17, compared to an exceptional gain of $0.4 million in FY18.
FY18 revenue grew 13.8% to $41.7 million, from $36.7 million a year ago.
This was mainly attributable to better performance in its Marine Distributorship business, which grew by 26.7%.
In a filing to SGX on Wednesday, USP says performance at its Recycling of Waste Oil business and its Property business also improved, on the back of continued efforts to streamline the business and increase productivity.
However, gross profit fell 5.5% to $15.0 million in FY18, from $15.9 million a year ago, as cost of sales rose 28.5% to $26.7 million.
As at end March, cash and cash equivalents stood at $3.1 million.
The group’s net asset value (NAV) per share slipped to 56.0 cents as at Mar 31, 2018, compared to 56.4 cents for FY17.
“The group’s marine business which was represented by the Supratechnic Group has performed well under the ‘Mercury’ brand. The recycling of waste oil sector has also contributed to the increase in revenue. However, the increase was partially offset by the decline in the instrumentation and calibration sector,” says Li Hua, executive chairman and chief executive officer of USP Group.
Looking ahead, the group says it has increased more branches in the region for the distributorship of the Mercury products, and expects the distributorship sector to contribute more to the group’s total revenue in the next two years.
Shares of USP Group last closed at 14 cents on Monday.
