Singapore Stocks to Watch: Vibrant, Chip Eng Seng

The following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Wednesday (Dec 14):

Vibrant (BIP): With freight costs tapering down, logistics playerVibrant Group : BIP 0%posted a 20.4 per cent rise in net profit to S$3.5 million for the first half of its financial year, which ended on Oct 31.

The company’s revenue rose 2 per cent to S$95.5 million for the period, largely due to contributions from international freight forwarding. Its cost of sales fell 7.1 per cent to S$65.1 million.

As freight costs dropped from their peak, Vibrant’s gross profit margin improved by 6.7 percentage points to 31.9 per cent, from 25.2 per cent in the year-ago period.

Chip Eng Seng (C29): Chip Eng Seng will acquire the 30 per cent stake it does not already own in a Maldives joint-venture (JV) company for US$1.3 million, the property company announced in a Tuesday (Dec 13) bourse filing.

The JV company, CES Tropical (Maldives), owns 99 per cent of an entity that holds the leasehold interest in a lagoon located in North Male Atoll, Maldives. Chip Eng Seng plans to develop the lagoon into a five-star resort.

Under the proposed deal, CES Hotels (Maldives) (CESHM), a wholly-owned unit of Chip Eng Seng, will buy the 30 per cent stake in CES Tropical from the seller, Tropical Developments. CESHM will also take over, for cash, the shareholder’s loans granted by Tropical Developments to CES Tropical of US$3 million.