Venture Corp

Contract manufacturing services provider Venture Corp posted a 10.1 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit to $35.8 million.

The firm said: "Profit improvement for the reported quarter continued to be driven by successful execution on a number of strategic initiatives including the pursuit of operational excellence and value creation."

Revenue for the three months to March 31 inched up 3.6 per cent to $630.7 million, compared with the same period a year earlier.

Earnings per share for the quarter was 13 cents, up from 11.8 cents a year earlier, while net asset value per share was $6.821 as at March 31, slightly down from $6.847 as at Dec 31.

Ho Bee Land

First-quarter earnings at property group Ho Bee Land surged on the back of contributions from its overseas investments.

The firm posted a 59.8 per cent jump in net profit to $18.5 million for the three months to March 31, while revenue rose 19.9 per cent to $37.2 million, owing to additional contributions from its three new acquisitions in London in the second half of 2015.

It said the share of profits from associates during the quarter amounted to $9.3 million, mainly from a joint venture project in Shanghai.

Ho Bee Land has property investments and developments in Australia, China and Britain.

Net asset value per share was $4.19 as at March 31, down from $4.23 as at Dec 31, while quarterly earnings per share came in at 2.77 cents, up from 1.7 cents a year ago.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings

Shipbuilder Yangzijiang Shipbuilding reported a 37 per cent drop in first-quarter net profit to 448 million yuan (S$93.2 million). The mainboard-listed Chinese firm's revenue for the three months to March 31 dropped 11 per cent to 2.71 billion yuan, compared with the same period a year earlier.

The shipbuilding unit's revenue contribution fell 13 per cent to 2 billion yuan, even though more vessels were delivered in the first quarter. The firm said this was because the "vessels delivered were of relatively smaller sizes".

It experienced higher volumes, which meant that revenue from trading business rose from 355.5 million yuan to 429.7 million yuan.

Quarterly earnings per share were 11.69 fen, down from 18.45 fen a year earlier, while net asset value was 580.6 fen as at March 31, up from 568.9 fen as at Dec 31.