Friday 29 Mar 2024
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SINGAPORE (Apr 30): Transport operator SMRT Corp posted a 23% rise in 4Q earnings to $20.8 million, or 1.4 cents per share, from a year ago.

Revenue rose 7.5% to $311.2 million from $289.5 million a year ago.

For the FY15 ended March, earnings rose 47% to $91 million while revenue rose 6.2% to $1.24 billion due to broad based revenue growth across most of the segments.

The fare business of trains, LRT and buses, registered an operating profit of $3.1 million in FY15 compared to an operating loss of $25 million in FY14 due mainly to better performance in bus operations.

In 4Q, the group’s fare business recorded an operating loss of $3.2 million primarily from train operations which suffered its first ever quarterly loss of $2.4 million.

The loss was partially mitigated by improvement in the bus operations which recorded an operating profit of $0.9 million after 17 consecutive quarters of losses.

Meanwhile, the non-fare business of taxi, rentals, advertising and engineering services, improved 8.3% and registered an operating profit of $115.2 million in FY15 due largely to an increase in profit for rental segment and taxi operations.

The higher profit from share of results of associate and joint ventures was due mainly to improved financial performance of its investment in Shenzhen Zona. PATMI improved 47.0% to $91.0 million.

SMRT said it continues to face increasing operating challenges in the rail business environment.

The group admits there is a need to increase operating expenses to cater to the enlarged fleet of trains.

Higher headcount will also be required to meet tightened regulatory standards.

And further investments will have to be made for the acquisition of new operating assets and asset renewal.

“The effective fare adjustment of 1.9% which took effect in April 2015 and lower energy prices will only partially mitigate the increase in operating costs in the coming year,” said the group.

The board has proposed a final dividend of 1.75 cents per share. Including the interim dividend of 1.5 cents, this will bring total dividend in FY15 to 3.25 cents.

This represents a 54.4% payout from FY15 PATMI of $91 million.

SMRT closed 1.5 cents higher at $1.685 today.

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