Sembcorp Marine

Rig builder Sembcorp Marine saw its net loss widen to $52.6 million for its third quarter ended Sept 30, from a $29.8 million net loss a year ago.

Its shares ended down 3.7 per cent or five cents at $1.29, compared with a closing price of $1.34 on Tuesday.

The rig builder said the net loss was mainly attributed to costs for rig and floater projects, as well as continued low overall business volume which impacted the absorption of overhead costs.

This was offset by margin recognition from newly secured production floater projects and rig delivery.

The group's revenue for the third quarter fell 38.6 per cent to $717.2 million, from $1.17 billion a year ago, mainly due to lower revenue recognition from rig and floater projects.

Excluding the effects of delivery of two jack-up rigs to Borr Drilling in the third quarter of last year, revenue would have been $773 million, the group said.

Loss per share amounted to 2.52 cents from 1.42 cents a year ago.

PropNex

Real estate agency PropNex yesterday posted a 15.2 per cent drop in its third-quarter net profit to $6.1 million from $7.2 million in the year-ago period, as it took in lower commission income while bearing higher staff costs and depreciation expenses.

For the three months to Sept 30, earnings per share stood at 1.65 cents, versus 1.95 cents in the year-ago period.

Revenue fell 1.3 per cent to $122.5 million from $124.2 million last year, mainly due to decrease in commission income from agency services, which was partially offset by an increase in earnings from project marketing services.

According to PropNex, commission income from agency services fell as strong resale activities before the cooling measures contributed to such activities last year. Meanwhile, commission income from project marketing services increased as a significant number of options-to-purchase issued have been completed in this quarter.

Separately, staff costs rose by about $0.8 million or 30.9 per cent to $3.5 million, mainly attributable to salary increment, an increase in the average staff headcount, and the accrual of staff bonus on a quarterly basis, PropNex said.

No dividend has been declared for the quarter.