"We continue to look favourably upon Boustead’s long-term growth profile as its businesses provide exposure to multiple secular trends," says Lim in her May 29 note, as she raised her fair value on this counter from $1.39 to $1.46.
For the year to March 31, Boustead reported revenue of $527.1 million, down 31% y-o-y, largely because of lower real estate revenue.
Its engineering business was too down by 9% y-o-y on a lower order backlog; its geospatial technology division, meanwhile, was up 4% y-o-y to a record.
However, thanks to a one-off gain of $29 million from the transfer of its fund and property management business to a joint venture, plus effective cost management, Boustead was able to report a 48% y-o-y jump in earnings to $95 million.
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Besides a final dividend of four cents, Boustead plans to pay a special dividend of two cents, bringing its FY2025 total to 7.5 cents, which implies a yield of 7.2% based on the May 26 closing price of $1.04.
As at March 31, Boustead's engineering order book backlog was $349 million, of which $126 million and $223 million were booked under its energy engineering and real estate divisions respectively.
In contrast, its order book as at March 31 2024 was $247 million.
Boustead Singapore shares changed hands at $1.13 as at 1.54pm, down 0.88% thus far today but up 9.71% year to date.
