ST Engineering's earnings crept up a mere 1% to $581m in 2013

Despite orderbook jumping 9%.

According to OCBC, STE reported a set of FY13 results that were generally in line with expectations. 

FY13 EPS of 18.73 S cents (flat versus FY12's 18.76 S cents) formed 99% and 104% of the street's and their forecasts.

Here's more from OCBC:

4Q13 revenue grew 12% YoY and 25% QoQ to S$1.94b. Recall that 3Q13 was a disappointing quarter partially due to lower gross profit from Aerospace and Land Systems and an impairment of S$23.7m for ROPAX.

On a QoQ basis, all four sectors registered higher revenue and PBT in 4Q13: Aerospace (+15%/+12%), Electronics (+49%/+9%), Land Systems (+12%/+126%) and Marine (+27%/39%).

Revenue growth was driven primarily by Electronics, which saw milestones completions of an air traffic control system, LTA's communications systems projects, higher sales of satellite communication products and electro-optics equipment.

Land System's PBT jump to S$39.6m was chiefly due to gain on disposal of a property, higher revenue and lower operating expenses.

FY13 revenue was S$6.63b, up 4%. PBT and net profit were S$730m (+2%) and S$581m (+1%). Commercial sales accounted for 62% of revenue.

As of end-2013, order book was S$13.2b, up 9% YoY. Final ordinary and special dividends of 4.0 S cents and 8.0 S cents bring FY dividends to 15.0 S cents, versus 16.8 S cents for FY12. Payout ratio is 80%, versus ~90% for FY09-FY12.