SG Morning Highlights | UOI net profit down 36.9% in FY2022, gross premium and underwriting profit below pre-Covid levels

Advancers / Decliners is 78 to 61, with 106.48 million securities worth S$106.14 million changing hands.

Even as Singapore and Vietnam strengthen cooperation in traditional areas like trade and investment, there are many opportunities to work closer together in new growth areas, said Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

These include the digital economy, renewable energy, carbon credits, green financing, cybersecurity and sustainable infrastructure, he said in an interview with Vietnam News Agency, a transcript of which was released to the Singapore media on Tuesday (Feb 7), the eve of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's official visit to Singapore.

"I would encourage interested parties to explore collaboration in these areas, to establish mutually beneficial partnerships that advance the interests of both countries," he said.

Malaysia's industrial production index (IPI) increased 3 per cent in December from a year earlier, slower than analysts' expectations due to easing manufacturing activities, according to government figures released on Tuesday (Feb 7).

This was lower than November's growth of 4.8 per cent, and lower than the 4.4 per cent average expectation of 10 economists in a recent Reuters poll.

For the whole of 2022, Malaysia's IPI narrowed slightly to 6.9 per cent, from 7.2 per cent in 2021. This was largely due to the manufacturing index (8.2 per cent), electricity index (4.5 per cent) and mining index (2.8 per cent).

Since 2016, Singapore has committed close to S$1 billion for Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs), with more than 40,000 local workers having benefited so far, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said in a written reply to Parliamentary questions on Monday (Feb 6).

He was replying to Nominated Member of Parliament Abdul Samad, who had asked about the take-up and budgets of various employment support programmes.

CCPs provide salary support for employers to reskill mid-career workers for new jobs with better prospects and progression opportunities. Workforce Singapore offers close to 100 CCPs across about 30 sectors.

Distributable income rose 95.9 per cent to S$56 million, from S$28.6 million in the previous year.

Gross revenue more than doubled to S$101.7 million in H1 FY2023, from S$39.2 million in H1 FY2022. The increase was mainly due to contributions from Jem, which was acquired in April 2022, as well as the easing of Covid-19 measures.

This was despite a rise in revenue of 18.7 per cent to S$1.3 billion, from S$1.1 billion the year before.

At its earnings briefing on Tuesday (Feb 7), the telco said this came on the back of lower profit from operations, including provisions for the company's Dare+ transformation initiatives. Dare+ is a five-year transformation plan that includes the establishment of StarHub's 5G network and other IT expenditures.

This takes its DPU for the full year to HK$0.145, also unchanged from the previous financial year, HPH Trust said in a bourse filing.

Revenue and other income for the full financial year fell 8.1 per cent to HK$12.2 billion (S$2.1 billion), while total operating expenses climbed 0.3 per cent to HK$7.9 billion. This resulted in operating profit falling 20.4 per cent to HK$4.3 billion.

This follows a 19.4 per cent decrease in net profit for the second half of FY2022 to S$12.1 million, according to its financial statement.

Gross premium for the full year rose 1.6 per cent to S$99 million on the back of employers' liability, marine classes of insurance and inward reinsurance, UOI said. H2 gross premium also grew at the same rate of 1.6 per cent to S$40.8 million.