By: musicwhiz Ezra released their 1H FY 2008 financial statements on April 8, 2008 after calling for a trading halt at 2 p.m. that day. I shall be reviewing their financials in three parts as I had done with Swiber. The first will touch on their Income Statement, margins and expenses as well as their Balance Sheet. The second will talk about cash flows as well as prospects. The third will comment on the general climate and how it may affect Ezra's business, and also discusses some of their plans for expansion based on their powerpoint presentation slides. Income Statement Review For 2Q 2008, revenues rose 92% as a result of 2 additional vessels, Lewek Kestrel and Lewek Kea, being delivered during 1H 2008 as well as the additional vessels contributing for 1H 2008 as mentioned in Ezra's press release. However, this was offset by much higher costs which rose 122% year-on-year, thus eroding gross margin and causing only a 53% rise in gross profit from S$15.8 million to S$24.3 million. Gross margins contracted from 43.8% in 2Q 2007 to just 35% in 2Q 2008, but note that 43.8% is uncharacteristically high for Ezra as their gross margins have usually hovered around 35-38%. If we look at 1H 2008 versus 1H 2007, the gross margin was 38.4% against 38.3% respectively, which is an insignificant difference. Of course, it can be argued that higher costs incurred in SGD have caused the fall in margins as most of their revenue is understood to be denominated in USD (the USD has been depreciating against the SGD, hitting a low of about 1.351 to the SGD recently). Read more...