SINGAPORE - Marco Polo Marine chalked up a 26 per cent rise in second quarter earnings to $3.8 million despite revenue dropping by 9 per cent to $29.7 million.

For the half year ended March 31, net profit grew by 79 per cent to $11.2 million.

Revenue, however, fell by 10 per cent to $56.3 million, due mainly to the fall in revenue by its ship chartering operations, which more than offset the increase in revenue by its ship building & repair operations.

Revenue from ship chartering slumped by 45.3 per cent to $18.6 million and 65.6 per cent to $5.4 million in the first half year and second quarter, respectively.

This was attributed mainly to:

* the deconsolidation of the results of BBR following its disposal;

* lower utilisation of tugboat and barge fleet amid the continued weakened shipping demand in the regional market for the shipment of coal and other commodities; and

* the transitional deployment of one of the group's offshre supply vessels to other locations following a change in charterers.

Underpinned by increased demand for ship building, the ship building & repair operations reported a rise in revenue of 31.8 per cent and 44.6 per cent with respect to the performance in the first six months and second quarter, respectively.

Half-year earnings per share firmed to 3.31 cents from 1.84 cents previously while net asset value per share grew to 52.9 cents compared to 49.4 cents as at Sept 30.

Gross profit margin was reduced from 28.7 per cent to 22.8 per cent in the first half and from 27.1 per cent to 22.9 per cent in the second quarter, chiefly as a result of a lower proportion of the revenue being contributed by ship chartering.

Typically, ship chartering generally commands higher gross profit margin compared to the ship building & repair operations.