SMRT – BT
SMRT to add 119 train trips on two lines
SMRT will be adding 119 train trips each week on the North-South (NS) and East-West (EW) lines to shorten waiting times during non-peak hours on weekdays and Sundays.
It will also be extending the peak hour time period on the Changi Airport extension. The changes will kick in from Aug 15.
‘We noticed that there are more customers using our trains during non-peak hours and on late Sunday afternoons,’ said SMRT vice-president of rail operations Lui Wai Meng in a press release yesterday. ‘We’ve also seen an increase in demand on the EW line and Changi Airport extension during morning peak hours.’
With the changes, waiting times during non-peak hours will drop to around 4-6.5 minutes, from seven minutes.
Commuters who stand to benefit on weekdays are those using the NS line in the early morning, those on the EW Line heading towards the city in the late morning, and those travelling from the city towards residential estates in the north and east of Singapore after 8pm.
Peak hour service on the Changi Airport extension will be extended by 30 minutes – trains will come at a frequency of nine minutes from 8-9am on weekdays and weekends. On Sundays, eastbound passengers will experience a shorter waiting time of around four minutes, from 4.45-6.45pm.
This is the third round of train service enhancement that SMRT has introduced this year. Including this latest change, SMRT would have added more than 1,710 train trips weekly since 2008.
SMRT gained one cent on the stock market yesterday to close at $1.825.
StarHub – BT
StarHub shares buck market decline
STARHUB was the only telco to emerge unscathed from the trading bloodbath yesterday as investors continue to be spooked by the prospect of a credit rating downgrade and bleak economic signals in the United States.
Shares of Singapore’s second-largest operator closed four cents higher yesterday at $2.91, resisting a wider market fallout which saw the Straits Time Index fall 1.47 per cent or 46.75 points to 3,130.34.
StarHub, which reports its second quarter results later today, was among a handful of counters to buck the downtrend. Its rally also came on the back of a recent analyst downgrade. On Monday, BNP Paribas had changed StarHub to hold from a sustained buy rating.
‘We see few short-term catalysts that could re-rate the stock in the next 12 months,’ BNP Paribas analyst Foong Choong Chen said in his research note.
Local operators will find it difficult to profit from the mobile data boom in the medium term due to heavy handset subsidies and generous cellular Internet bundles. For StarHub, an increase in capital expenditure as a result of investments in subsidiary Nucleus Connect means there is little hope of raising shareholder payouts or declaring a special dividend, he added.
While market watchers say defensive plays such as telcos could find favour with investors in light of lingering uncertainty in the US, the StarHub rally was not repeated across the board yesterday.
Rivals Singapore Telecommunications slipped six cents to $3.32 on fears that Bharti Airtel could continue to weigh down its bottom line. SingTel’s largest overseas associate yesterday reported a 28 per cent drop in its first-quarter net profit to 12.15 billion rupees (S$330 million).
M1 shares edged down by one cent to end trading at $2.58.
STEng – BT
ST Engineering Q2 net up 5%; revenue dips
Interim dividend of 3 cents per share declared
SINGAPORE Technologies Engineering’s second quarter net profit rose 5 per cent to $130.5 million from a year ago, even as revenue dipped 2 per cent to $1.48 billion.
If not for the US dollar’s depreciation against the Singapore currency, the group said it would have posted a revenue increase and stronger profit growth.
For the half year ended June 30, the conglomerate’s net profit grew 11 per cent to $241.6 million, while revenue rose 6 per cent to $3.1 billion. The impact of the US dollar’s slide relative to the Sing dollar was even greater on the half-year results – revenue growth would have been 10 per cent, or $120 million higher otherwise.
Earnings per share for the group rose to 4.29 cents for Q2, from 4.11 a year ago. For the first half, EPS was 7.93 cents, up from 7.18 cents a year ago.
The group’s net asset value as at the end of Q2 also rose to 50.28 cents, from 48.63 cents at the end of the same quarter last year.
For the second quarter, its Marine arm was the only one to post 5 per cent revenue growth, thanks to higher shiprepair activities.
Both the Aerospace and Electronics divisions posted marginal revenue growth of 1 per cent each. For Aerospace, higher revenue from the engines repair and overhaul business was offset by the impact of a weakening US dollar on aircraft maintenance and modification business turnover. Electronics, meanwhile, saw higher revenue from the completion of the Integrated Resort and communication projects under its communication and sensor systems business offset by lower value project milestone completions under its large-scale systems business.
Land Systems was the only arm to post a 14 per cent drop in revenue, due to lower scheduled project deliveries from its automotive business group.
The group, which also supplies to military customers globally, said that commercial sales made up 62 per cent or $925 million of its Q2 revenue.
At the results briefing yesterday, ST Engineering president and CEO Tan Pheng Hock said the second half is likely to be challenging globally, with Europe not fully out of the woods and US debt still facing a ratings downgrade risk. But he was confident that the group would achieve higher profits in the second half compared to the first.
The group’s order book stood at $10.8 billion as at end June. In the second quarter, aerospace secured new projects worth over $260 million, Electronics secured $126 million worth of contracts and Marine won a shipbuilding contract worth about $171 million.
Its board of directors yesterday announced an interim ordinary dividend of 3 cents per share, to be paid on Sept 2.
ST Engineering gained two cents to close at $3.05 yesterday, before its results were out.
STEng – BT
ST Engineering Q2 net up 5%; revenue dips
Interim dividend of 3 cents per share declared
SINGAPORE Technologies Engineering’s second quarter net profit rose 5 per cent to $130.5 million from a year ago, even as revenue dipped 2 per cent to $1.48 billion.
If not for the US dollar’s depreciation against the Singapore currency, the group said it would have posted a revenue increase and stronger profit growth.
For the half year ended June 30, the conglomerate’s net profit grew 11 per cent to $241.6 million, while revenue rose 6 per cent to $3.1 billion. The impact of the US dollar’s slide relative to the Sing dollar was even greater on the half-year results – revenue growth would have been 10 per cent, or $120 million higher otherwise.
Earnings per share for the group rose to 4.29 cents for Q2, from 4.11 a year ago. For the first half, EPS was 7.93 cents, up from 7.18 cents a year ago.
The group’s net asset value as at the end of Q2 also rose to 50.28 cents, from 48.63 cents at the end of the same quarter last year.
For the second quarter, its Marine arm was the only one to post 5 per cent revenue growth, thanks to higher shiprepair activities.
Both the Aerospace and Electronics divisions posted marginal revenue growth of 1 per cent each. For Aerospace, higher revenue from the engines repair and overhaul business was offset by the impact of a weakening US dollar on aircraft maintenance and modification business turnover. Electronics, meanwhile, saw higher revenue from the completion of the Integrated Resort and communication projects under its communication and sensor systems business offset by lower value project milestone completions under its large-scale systems business.
Land Systems was the only arm to post a 14 per cent drop in revenue, due to lower scheduled project deliveries from its automotive business group.
The group, which also supplies to military customers globally, said that commercial sales made up 62 per cent or $925 million of its Q2 revenue.
At the results briefing yesterday, ST Engineering president and CEO Tan Pheng Hock said the second half is likely to be challenging globally, with Europe not fully out of the woods and US debt still facing a ratings downgrade risk. But he was confident that the group would achieve higher profits in the second half compared to the first.
The group’s order book stood at $10.8 billion as at end June. In the second quarter, aerospace secured new projects worth over $260 million, Electronics secured $126 million worth of contracts and Marine won a shipbuilding contract worth about $171 million.
Its board of directors yesterday announced an interim ordinary dividend of 3 cents per share, to be paid on Sept 2.
ST Engineering gained two cents to close at $3.05 yesterday, before its results were out.
SMRT – BT
Oct: Circle Line fully open; Dec: more NS, EW capacity
CCL will relieve crowding along N-S and E-W lines by about 10-15%
THE remaining 12 stations on the Circle Line will open for service on Oct 8, while capacity along the North-South and East-West MRT Lines will be increased from December.
Transport Minister and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Lui Tuck Yew announced this yesterday after riding the Circle Line (CCL) from Labrador Park to Caldecott.
The 12 stations are from Caldecott to HarbourFront and part of the last two of the five CCL phases.
The orbital line has a total of 28 stations, the first five of which were opened in May 2009 and the subsequent 11 in April 2010.
Daily ridership on the CCL is now about 200,000 and when it is fully open, this number is expected to double to 400,000.
Mr Lui said the CCL will enhance connectivity of the rail network and cut travel time for many commuters.
‘For example, travelling from Bishan to Buona Vista will take only 26 minutes compared to 40 minutes today via the North-South and East-West Lines,’ he said.
He added that the full opening of the CCL will relieve crowding along the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL) by about 10-15 per cent.
‘With the completion of the Jurong East Modification Project and injection of the five additional trains since May, we have seen some improvement in train loading along critical stretches of the NSEWL. With these additional trains, LTA and SMRT are able to add more train trips during the peak period,’ said Mr Lui, referring to the Land Transport Authority and train operator SMRT Corp.
He said that to increase capacity, 17 more trains will be added by December along the NSEWL.
‘An additional 13 trains will be delivered around 2014-2015. Together, these 30 trains will enhance the capacity of the NSEWL by about 25 per cent,’ said Mr Lui.
Currently, however, the frequency of train services during peak periods is limited by the signalling system, which is undergoing an upgrade. When this is completed in 2016-2018, intervals between trains will fall from two minutes to 100 seconds.
‘However, I understand that LTA and SMRT are finalising plans to add more train trips to improve off-peak frequencies. These service improvements will be announced soon,’ said Mr Lui.
Peak hours may vary according to the distance of the station from the city centre but they are usually defined as 7-9am, and 5-8pm.