Singapore Stocks to Watch: SIA, SIA Engineering, F&N, Silverlake, Jiutian Chemical

THE following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Friday (Feb 16):

$SINGAPORE Airlines(C6L.SI)$ (SIA) recorded a year-on-year, 14.4 per cent rise in group passenger traffic to 12.6 billion for January 2024, it said on Thursday (Feb 15).

Within the group, the flagship airline’s revenue passenger-kilometres rose 14.3 per cent to 9.6 billion from 8.4 billion year on year. Passenger traffic, expressed as revenue passenger-km, indicates the number of passengers carried multiplied by the distance flown.

Passenger capacity across the group rose 16.5 per cent on-year to 14.7 billion from 12.7 billion, outpacing January’s revenue passenger-km due to the shift in the Chinese New Year to February.

$Fraser and Neave(F99.SI)$ (F&N) on Thursday (Feb 15) announced that its Malaysian unit Fraser & Neave Holdings Berhad (F&NHB) has agreed, through a subsidiary, to lease an industrial land parcel in Cambodia for a total consideration of US$3.9 million.

Bursa Malaysia-listed F&NHB intends to build a dairy manufacturing facility on the 32,200 square metre (sq m) land parcel, which it has leased for 50 years starting from Feb 1, 2024, noted F&N in the announcement. The statement was also filed on the Malaysian bourse.

$SIA Engineering Company(S59.SI)$ (SIAEC) has reported net profit of $26.9 million for the 3QFY2023/2024 ended Dec 31, 2023, more than double its net profit of $12.8 million in the corresponding period last year.

Net profit for the 9MFY2022/2023 also increased 90.3% y-o-y to $86.2 million.

Revenue for 3QFY2023/2024 improved 40.2% y-o-y to $291.7 million while group expenditure rose at a lower rate of 33.8% y-o-y to $295.1 million mainly due to an increase in manpower costs and material costs.

$Jiutian Chemical Group(C8R.SI)$ has issued a profit warning for FY2023 ended Dec 31, 2023, saying it expects to announce a net loss for the full-year period. 

In a Feb 15 bourse filing, its Board of Directors says this is mainly due to a decline in the average selling prices of its main products — dimethylformamide and methylamine — arising from an industry-wide softening of demand and significant production capacity added by a new competitor since 4Q2022. 

The competitor is Jiangxi Xinlianxin Chemical Industry, a subsidiary of Henan XinLianXin Chemical Group Co. Ltd.

$Silverlake Axis(5CP.SI)$ has reported earnings of RM89.3 million ($25.2 million) for the 1HFY2024 ended Dec 31, 2023, an 11% decrease compared to its earnings of RM99.7 million in the corresponding period last year.

Revenue in the half-year period increased 1% y-o-y to RM397.4 million while cost of sales increased 9% y-o-y to RM177.2 million.

The company's total recurring revenue, which gives better earnings visibility and accounts for 75% of its overall revenue, increased 7% y-o-y to RM298.8 million.