Dear Shareholders,
Our financial year ended 30 June 2012 ("FY2012") was a fruitful year for the Group with improved performance seen across the Board. The strong volume of construction activities in ASEAN has helped to sustain the growth and fulfilled our focus to spread our wings in the region. These activities include some of the completed and the on-going projects such as MRT Downtown Lines, Exxonmobil SPT Project and Google Data Centre Project in Singapore, Kelana Jaya LRT Line Extension and Pengerang Oil Terminal in Malaysia as well as Nghi Son Power Plant and Thi Vai Terminal in Vietnam.
Group revenue was S$129.2 million for FY2012, 20.8% higher than the prior year with revenue increased in both rental and trading segments. Revenue from our Equipment Rental business increased by 20.0% to S$40.1 million due to improved contribution from overseas subsidiaries and an expanded fleet size in the Group where our aggregate crane lifting capacity has increased by 26.4% to 15,253 tons. Revenue from our Trading business increased by 21.2% to S$89.1 million mainly due to a higher volume of cranes traded locally and in the region. Gross margin remained at 15.8% and net profit after tax was up 16.6% at S$9.4 million.
Fruit of overseas investments
The Singapore market contributed the lion's share to Group revenue, accounting for S$62.7 million or 48.6% in FY2012. While we are pleased with the healthy 8.0% growth in revenue from Singapore, we have also tapped into the rapid growth of other ASEAN economies. It has always been our strategy to diversify geographic risk. We had successfully increased the contribution of our overseas segment to Group revenue from 45.7% in FY2011 to 51.4% in FY2012. In 2009, we began establishing our overseas subsidiaries in Malaysia and in Vietnam. Since then, we have increased our market shares through increased investments in assets and strategic acquisition. In addition, our established foothold in these countries has also helped to provide us a springboard to new business opportunities in the region.
Synergies in new partnerships
The highlight of FY2012 was the entry of Toyota Tsusho Corporation ("TTC"), a member of Toyota Motor Group on 25 May 2012 as our substantial shareholder after it acquired from SEAVI Advent Equity V (C) Ltd the controlling stake of 26.96% in our Company. TTC is the second largest shareholder after TAL Holdings Pte Ltd which is now the largest shareholder with a 28.11% stake. TTC had identified Sin Heng as a strategic investment because of the synergies that it would reap by leveraging on the Group's extensive network especially in ASEAN.
It is also the Group's intention to explore collaborative opportunities and engage more customers involved in potential overseas projects with TTC 's assistance in providing access to these companies .
As part of our strategy to explore the new markets, we had also entered into a strategic partnership with Starhigh Asia Pacific Pte Ltd to venture into Myanmar. We expect to benefit from this exciting frontier market where political and economic reforms are driving growth in foreign direct investment.
Enlarged distributorship presence
Our distributorship for Kato now covers Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. In July 2012, the Group announced that it had entered into a distributorship agreement for Indonesia with Kato Works Co., Ltd., a renowned manufacturer of fully hydraulic rough terrain cranes, truck cranes and all terrain cranes as well as a variety of construction and industrial machinery. The grant of right to sell new Kato cranes and parts has come in timely for Indonesia, being one of the fastest growing G20 major economy which is investing heavily into infrastructure and construction to boost its growth. This enlarged distributorship presence is expected to enhance our trading coverage and further strengthen our foothold in the region.
Cautious optimism for year ahead
The rapid development of Singapore's infrastructure and a strong pipeline of local construction projects are expected to provide steady demand for our products and services. We believe our overseas investments will also continue to bear fruit and to benefit from the robust economic growth in ASEAN. Yet, we are cautiously mindful of the global economic situations, which may dampen the demand if Europe's sovereign debt woes and the anemic state of the US economy take a turn for the worse.
Acknowledgements and thanks
To reward shareholders with the fruits of the Group's success, the Board has proposed a final cash dividend of 0.55 Singapore cents per share (tax-exempt) for FY2012. Together with our interim dividend of 0.45 Singapore cents per share, the total annual dividend amounts to 1 Singapore cent per share, translating into a generous payout of 49.2% of profit attributable to shareholders.
Based on our Company's share price of 20.5 Singapore cents per share as at 29 June 2012, our 1 Singapore cent dividend provides shareholders with a healthy 4.9% dividend yield.
Following the entry of TTC as our shareholder in May 2012, we are pleased to welcome Mr Hiroshi Takahashi and Mr Hideki Okada who were appointed as Executive Directors and Mr Kuniyoshi Furukawa as a Non-Executive Director to our Board. We would also like to thank Mr Derrick Lee Meow Chan, Mr Teo Yi-Dar and Mr Leong Wing Kong who resigned from the Board on 25 May 2012 for their contribution to our Group. At the same time, we like to extend our welcome to Mr Soh Sai Kiang who joins the Group as a Non-Executive Independent Director with effect from 1 August 2012.
On behalf of the Board, I wish to take this opportunity to thank our management team and our staff for their team spirit and hard work all these times. We also wish to express appreciation to all our principals, business associates and shareholders who have made the difference to where we are today.
Mr Tan Cheng Soon DonManaging Director |