Venture Corporation has posted 2Q20 earnings of $70.2 million for the 2Q20 ended June, some 22.7% lower than the $90.8 million registered in 2Q19.
Revenue for the quarter fell 23.3% y-o-y to $692.7 million due to the Covid-19-induced lockdown measures that restricted the group’s manufacturing activities.
In an Aug 7 statement, Venture Corp said that it rebounded “swiftly” in May and June to achieve a sequential recovery in 2Q.
Quarter-on-quarter, the group registered a 16.4% and 2.9% increase in earnings and revenue respectively. Net profit margin also rose to 1.1 percentage points q-o-q to 10.1%.
Earnings for 1H20 fell 28.1% y-o-y to $130.6 million, while revenue for the half-period period declined by 25.5% y-o-y to $1.37 billion.
Despite the decline in earnings, the group has declared an interim dividend of 25 cents per share for 1H20, compared to the interim dividend of 20 cents a share in 1H19. The payment will be made to unitholders on Sep 18.
Earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter came in at 24.2 cents, which brings the total EPS for 1H20 to 44.9 cents.
In 1H20, employee benefits expense fell 12.0% y-o-y to $145.7 million due mainly to reductions in staff costs, overtime charges and foreign worker levies through rationalisation of manpower resources and improved productivity.
Depreciation and amortisation expense for the half-year increased 20.4% y-o-y to $21.4 million mainly to higher depreciation charge for Right-of-Use (ROU) assets totalling $5.9 million for 1H 2020, compared to the $2.8 million ROU depreciation in 1H19.
As at end June, cash and cash equivalents stood at $834.1 million.
In its outlook statement, Venture Corp said the steady recovery in 2Q20 is expected to continue into the second half of 2020, and that its research and development labs have plans to release “a number of” newly developed products into manufacturing in early 2021.
Shares in Venture Corp closed 13 cents lower, or 0.7%, at $18.84 on Aug 7 prior to the announcement.
