ST Engineering's profits down 1.1% to $168.5m in Q4

Its marine sector’s earnings plunged 96.8% due to shipbuilding losses.

ST Engineering’s profits in Q4 fell 1.1% YoY to $168.5m as its marine sector posted a 96.8% plunge due to losses from shipbuilding widened during Q4.

OCBC Investment Research noted that the heavy losses were offset by higher profit margins from the aerospace and electronics sectors, as well as the favourable impact from the remeasurement of deferred tax balances due to US tax reform for its land systems sector. Q4 revenue fell 6.5% YoY to$1.702b, on lower revenues across all sectors except for aerospace.

Despite problems in the marine sector, ST Engineering smashed company records in terms of the deals they bagged. The electronics segment has clinched contracts worth $742m in Q4 and secured new orders worth $2.24b for 2018. ST Aerospace bagged contracts worth $510m.

For 2017, revenue fell 1% YoY to$6.62b, as the growth at aerospace and electronics sectors were offset by the decline in land systems and marine sectors. A final dividend of 10 cents was proposed for 2017. This brought the total dividend for 2017 to 15 cents, which was unchanged from the 2016 total.