Boustead had released their 1H FY 2009 results on November 14, 2008. At first glance, it looked as if the Group had done quite terribly, as net profit due to shareholders was down 41.6% for 1H 2009 compared with 1H 2008. On closer inspection however, it seems that the reason for the apparent decline was because of exceptionals which had been recognized in 1H 2008. Stripping this out, net profit attributable to shareholders would have increased by 30.2% for 1H 2009 to S$15.2 million, implying that core net profit for 1H 2008 stood at S$11.7 million. More will be elaborated on in the following sections.
Profit and Loss Analysis (Note: All numbers used are for 1H 2009 and 1H 2008, not 2Q 2009 and 2Q 2008)
Revenues increased very slightly from S$206.2 million to S$210.5 million, up 2.1%. The good news is that cost of goods sold fell 0.8% in the same period, thus Boustead saw its 1H 2009 gross profit margin improve to 31.4% from 29.4% in the previous corresponding period. Other operating income fell 64.1% due to the absence of exceptionals in 1H 2008 (gain on disposal of assets held for sale). In addition, there was also a gain of S$6.1 million from the sale of a leasehold property and S$1.9 million in a tax write-back. Stripping all these out, net profit attributable to shareholders would have increased 30.2% as mentioned above. Net margin based on net attributable core net profit is 7.2% for 1H 2009, versus just 5.6% for 1H 2008. Read more...