SINGAPORE - A-Sonic Aerospace, which recently exited the Singapore Exchange's watch list, has posted strong interim results, thanks to a sharp pickup in global freight and logistics demand.
The mainboard-listed company also unveiled a one-for-four bonus share issue just after unveiling its second-quarter and half-year numbers.
The company reported net earnings of US$5.44 million (S$7.49 million) for the six months to June 30, 35 per cent higher than the US$4.04 million recorded a year earlier.
Revenue rose 15.1 per cent to US$222.51 million compared with US$193.39 million last year.
The results translated into earning per share of 5.94 US cents.
The company's net tangible assets stood at $60.5 million as at June 30, translating into 85 Singapore cents per share.
While A-Sonic reports its earnings in US dollars, it uses Singdollars to denote its other financial data.
The company, which specialises in aviation and logistics in 29 cities in 16 countries, had cash and cash equivalent of $95.8 million as at June 30 and no borrowings.
A-Sonic's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew at a compounded annual rate of 90 per cent between 2018 and 2021.
Its second-half performance is traditionally stronger so the company expects results for the full year to be good, barring unforeseen circumstances.
"Last year, our second-half revenue was 38 per cent higher than the first half, while profit was 56 per cent higher," said chief executive and controlling shareholder Janet Tan.
She added that the one-for-four bonus share issue was to reward loyal investors and also increase the liquidity of the stock.
"The 17.7 million new shares will result in a 25 per cent increase in the company's existing issued share base to 88.9 million," she added. "While we may not have declared an interim dividend, this represents a generous dividend payout of sorts for our loyal shareholders."
This is not the first bonus issue from A-Sonic.
Earlier this year, the company completed a 14.6 million free warrants issue to shareholders.
The one warrant-for-four shares deal enabled shareholders to convert their bonus warrants into shares on a one-for-one basis at an exercise price of eight cents.
At the time, the conversion translated into shareholders getting their A-Sonic shares at an 88 per cent discount to the then prevailing price. The 12.7 million new shares issued boosted A-Sonic's share base by 21.6 per cent.
After almost three years, A-Sonic was released last month from the SGX watch list after it met the $40 million minimum market capitalisation threshold.
