Koh Brothers full-year net profit up 9% to S$21.3m

Two core businesses performed impressively.

Koh Brothers Group Limited (Koh Brothers) has announced that its net profit for the full year ended December 31, 2013 (FY2013) rose 9% to S$21.3 million from S$19.7 million in the previous corresponding period (FY2012).

This was largely driven by increased sales from the Group’s two core business areas. On a year-on-year basis, sales from the Group’s Construction and Building Materials division and from the Real Estate Division increased 16% and 33% respectively. This raised Group Revenue by 24% to S$371.2 million in FY2013, up from S$299.5 million in FY2012. The remaining contribution to Group Revenue was from the Leisure and Hospitality division, which registered S$4.1 million in sales in FY2013.

Mr. Francis Koh, Managing Director and Group CEO of Koh Brothers, commented: “I am delighted that Koh Brothers has achieved an outstanding set of results in FY2013, a fruition of the Group’s strong capabilities in planning, winning and executing projects. In Real Estate, we are pleased to have achieved 100% sales of Parc Olympia within a year of its launch, providing us with good earnings visibility for the next two years.

“In Construction and Building Materials, Koh Brothers continually innovates in anticipation of industry demands. In line with that, we have strategically expanded our precast capabilities in Iskandar and this has positioned the Group attractively in our bids and we are confident that it will also enable Koh Brothers to augment our growth into the future.

“For Hospitality, both Oxford Hotel and our serviced apartments, Alocassia, have performed well, and we expect continued high occupancy in line with Singapore’s attractive position as a top travel destination.”

“There is a silver lining in every cloud. Notwithstanding a competitive and challenging construction sector, Koh Brothers kicked off 2013 with a S$99.8 million contract awarded by PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, for canal improvement works to Bukit Timah First Diversion Canal. And in 2014, Koh Brothers won another public sector construction contract worth S$98.0 million from the Housing Development Board to build Vine Grove @ Yishun, a Build-To-Order project.

“All these allude to the industry’s recognition of Koh Brother’s strong track record, which will continue to be one of the Group’s competitive edges, as we continue to capitalise on the increase in demand in Construction, which is expected to come from the public sector.

“As for the residential property market, although cooling measures may have some impact on demand and prices, we expect the property market to be relatively stable in the long run. For our executive condominium site in Jurong West, which we’ve clinched through our joint venture, we anticipate healthy interest from buyers due to the limited supply of executive condominiums in western Singapore.

“Having achieved another outstanding year, the Group intends to share our success with our shareholders as well, and proposes a special dividend of 0.20 SGD cent, in addition to a final dividend of 0.50 SGD cent."