THE PAST TWO years have been good to MTQ Corporation shareholders.
Firstly, from under a dollar, the stock's price has steadily climbed to almost reach S$2.
Secondly, the Group has increased its annual dividend per share from 3.2 cents for FY2012 progressively to 4.0 cents for FY2014.
Thirdly, the increase in dividend per share is over and above its 1-for-4 bonus issue last July and its latest proposed 1-for-5 bonus issue.
That works out to an effective increase of 50% in annual dividend payout from 2 years ago.
On 5 May, the Group posted a 50% year-on-year surge in FY2014 revenue at S$313.3 million and a 57% surge in net profit attributable to shareholders at S$24.2 million.
Contribution from Neptune Marine Services (acquired in December 2012) also boosted revenue.
On the down-side, revenue from engine systems declined by 11% due to the depreciation of the Aussie dollar.
Also, 4QFY2014 net profit attributable to shareholders fell 13% to S$5.8 million due to a high base of comparison in 4QFY2013. (There was a large scale diving campaign undertaken by Neptune in 4QFY2013.)
"Overall profitability has continued to trend up," said MTQ Group CEO Kuah Boon Wee at its results briefing on Monday after market close.
More information on its financial results can be found here.
Below is a summary of questions raised by investment professionals at the briefing and the replies provided by Mr Kuah and CFO Dominic Siu.
Q: What was adjusted in your restatement of financial accounts for FY2013?
When we first acquired Neptune, we assigned a provisional intangible asset value of about S$18 million based on face value.
During the 12 month window of finalizing the acquisition accounting, we found that we could expense S$16.9 million, including amortisation.
Q: Are there any more intangibles?
No
Q: When is the earliest you can make a general offer for Neptune?
We can do it now.
Q: Who are your top 5 customers?
We do not have a dominant group of customers. We deal with all the oil majors.
For illustration, last year, we had contracts from big customers like McDermott (a big construction service company), ENI (Italian oil & gas service company), and MODEC (a Japanese FPSO service company).
In Singapore, our customers include GE, Aker, Cameron. GE and National Oilwell Varco have a large presence in Bahrain.
Our drilling contractor customers are also broad based now.
Q: What do you do for the FPSO players?
Floating Production Supply and Offload (FPSO) vessels stay in the water a long time.
So, there is always propensity for something to go wrong.
We do mostly inspections and repairs.
For example, we did a diving campaign for MODEC's remotely operated vessels (ROVs). We had to inspect some underwater installations.
We also did underwater welding to repair big cracks in the keel of a BHP FPSO.