Singapore Corporate News - 19 Sep 2007

Xpress Hldgs full-year profit jumps 43% to $7.09m

SPEED printer Xpress Holdings announced that its net earnings for the year ended July 31, 2007 rose 43 per cent to $7.09 million from $4.95 million in the previous financial year, thanks to growing demand for time-sensitive financial publications from its clients in China.

Revenue rose 19 per cent to $37.3 million from $31.2 million during the period as the group's financial research reports segment reported a 274 per cent increase in turnover to $15.7 million compared with FY2006's $4.2 million.

Predicting that the current financial year will be even better as the outlook for the financial print market in China remains positive, the mainboard-listed company declared a 20 per cent rise in dividends to 0.12 cent a share.

The results were also boosted by Xpress' acquisitions of Precise Media Group (PMG) and a 30 per cent stake in Shenzhen Jiaxinda Printing Co (JXD).

Through PMG's strong partnerships with approved PRC printers and logistics companies, Xpress has the unique flexibility of printing at various locations to meet clients' requirements for reports to be delivered on time to multiple locations.

JXD's contribution to Xpress in FY2007 rose 426 per cent to $1.7 million from just $300,000 in FY2006 on the back of a one-time exceptional gain of $2.85 million from disposals of its short-term quoted securities in the open market. Earnings per share on a fully diluted basis increased to 0.54 cent from 0.52 cent while net asset value increased to 7.4 cents from 6.6 cents.

SP Chemicals to build 1.1b yuan China plant

MAINBOARD-LISTED SP Chemicals said yesterday it plans to invest about 1.1 billion yuan (S$221.9 million) in facilities in China to produce styrene monomer, an intermediate raw chemical used in a range of consumer and industrial applications like packaging, building and construction.

SP Chemicals plans to produce 320,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of styrene monomer. Construction of the plant is expected to start in the third quarter of FY2008 and to be completed by the first quarter of FY2010.

It is the latest of a slew of expansion initiatives SP Chemicals has undertaken in the last three years, which include building a co-generation plant and doubling its capacity for chlor alkali and aniline, other intermediate chemicals.

As of the end of the first quarter this year, SP Chemicals was the fourth largest ion-membrane chlor alkali producer and the fifth largest producer of aniline in China, it said.

A new plant to produce vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) will start operating in H207. SP Chemicals is also raising capacity for its existing products: for caustic soda from 300,000 tpa to 450,000 tpa; for chlorine from 264,000 tpa to 396,000 tpa and for aniline from 90,000 tpa to 135,000 tpa. These expansions will be ready by Q108.

Excluding the newly announced plant, the initiatives are estimated to cost SP Chemicals some US$216 million in investment.

The planned styrene monomer plant represents a new product for the group, but complements its existing infrastructure, as it will use facilities already built for its VCM plant, such as the ethylene storage tank and the air separators.