Re:market correction... by MacGyver30th, Jul. 04:11 PM Market is bullish again.. Good trading period from now to early-m...
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Re:Rokko-An Explosiv... by neontet30th, Jul. 07:41 AM all these semicon companies are doing really well.
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market correction by pathfinder30th, Jul. 12:10 AM With all US company result good news ending in 2 weeks time & no ...
Re:Rokko-An Explosiv... by MOSBY29th, Jul. 11:49 PM http://www.remisiers.org/research//dailyex2307.pdf
TP :$0.30...
COURAGE MARINE: Profit rebound in Q4, surprising 3.7% dividend yield
Written by Leong Chan Teik
Tuesday, 02 March 2010
Will 2010 mark a return to higher profits for Courage Marine?
TWO THINGS stand out about dry bulk shipping company Courage Marine’s Q4 results announced late Friday:
a) Pleasantly surprising, Q4 was a profitable quarter (US$2.948 m), saving the full-year result from being a loss-making one.
b) The net profit was US$75,000 for the full year, which is teeny weeny but Courage Marine has proposed a first and final dividend of 0.472 US cent.
The dividend yield is a respectable 3.67% based on the last transacted stock price of 18 cents.
It’s an all the more welcome payout, especially when considering that many S-chip companies with far bigger cash hoards and profits are not paying a dividend – typically in the name of conserving cash for business expansion programmes.
Courage Marine, which is not an S-chip, is able and willing to pay a dividend because it ended 2009 with US$43.2 million cash and a short-term debt of just US$3.2 million.
The proposed dividend payout amounts to US$5 million.
Just an interesting note from the good times: For FY07, Courage Marine had paid out a bumper 3.115 US cents (4.36 Singapore cents) in dividend out of its bumper net profit of US$60.4 million.
Courage Marine is a Taiwanese company, which was listed on the Singapore Exchange in 2005. Its competitive strength is being able to work its fleet of 8 old vessels - average age 25 years - efficiently.
Courage Marine chairman Hsu Chih-chien, 51, comes from an old shipping family in Shanghai. Photo by Leong Chan Teik
In the years prior to 2009, the utilization rate was above 90%, compared to about 80% for what other operators are likely to get out of a similar fleet, according to Courage Marine's chairman, Hsu Chih-chien, in a chat with NextInsight last week.
Courage Marine’s fortunes have risen and plunged with the Baltic Dry Index (BDI).
In Q4, the BDI averaged about 3,000, up by about 50% from Q4 of 2008.
Correspondingly, Courage Marine’s turnover was up 53% in Q4 of 2009 to US$11.4 million.
For the full year, the Group’s turnover tumbled by 63% to approximately US$27.9 million due to the sharply lower average freight rates during the year, particularly in the first half of the year.
When NextInsight met Courage Marine’s chairman in Singapore last week, we asked him for the outlook on the BDI.
COURAGE MARINE
18.5 cents
52-week high/low
27/11 cents
2009 dividend yield
3.7%
PE ratio
n.m.
NAV
10.41 US cts
No. of issued shares
1,058 m
Market cap
$196 m
n.m: not meaningful
He cited a TradeWinds survey of hundreds of shipowners worldwide, and the consensus is that it would average 3,500 this year. His own take is in line with that consensus.
Much of the outlook is premised on China’s strong demand for iron ore imports on the one hand, and the glut of new ships coming into the market on the other, said Mr Hsu.
A recovery in freight rates will lead to a better financial performance for Courage Marine, especially because its shipping capacity will jump by about 33% to 530,000 dwtafter it takes delivery of the 29-year-old MV Constantinoupolis for US$7,850,000 this month (March).
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