BBR Holdings suffers sharp drop in Q1 earnings

SINGAPORE - Construction group BBR Holdings saw earnings for the first quarter plummet by 83.2 per cent, on the back of lower revenue from general construction business.

It drew a net profit of $848,000 for the three months ended March 31 - a far cry from the $142.8 million in the same period a year ago.

Revenue fell 35.7 per cent to $91.8 million, mainly to lower revenue from the general construction segment, said BBR in a statement on Tuesday.

It noted that most of the group's general construction projects were in their active stages of construction, and some of them were completed by the first quarter of this year.

Specialised engineering revenue, however, continued to "show an uptrend" due to ongoing construction projects in Malaysia.

Gross margin for the quarter slid to 7.1 per cent, compared with the 7.9 per cent last year.

Earnings per share slid to 0.27 cent, down from the 1.64 cents previously, while net asset value per share stood at 43.78 cents as at March 31, up from the 43.61 cents at Dec 31 last year.

BBR chief executive Andrew Tan said: "While we maintained a strong order book of approximately $555 million, we are relentlessly driving new business opportunities for general construction segment."

The new mixed commercial and residential development project in Yishun Avenue 4 will also "inject new momentum" into the group's property development division after the residential component is launched for sale at the end of this year, he added.

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