SingTel’s 4Q09 Net Profit Jumps 24% To $991m
SingTel has posted a set of sterling results for its 4Q09 ended Dec 31, 2009 as net profit leapt 24% to $991m on the back of a 20% gain in revenue to $4.45b. The turnover increase was driven by higher sales from Australia and Singapore, both rising 4.8% to A$2.3b and 1.5% to $1.53b on-year in respective contributions. An appreciation of 27% in the Australian dollar against the local Singapore dollar during the quarter further accentuated the increase.

Pre-tax earnings from the regional mobile associates increased 22% to $592m, driven by significant improvement in Telkomsel’s performance in Indonesia and fair value gains on associates’ foreign currency liabilities. The company said its regional mobile customer base grew by 23% yoy to 285m as at end 2009. In Singapore, it said its total handphone customers rose 8.1% to 3.2m during the same period, bringing its total estimated local market share to 42%.

Eurozone Sovereign Debt Woes Sink Dow Below 10,000
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed below 10,000 for the first time since November on Monday as investors sold bank shares due to heightened concerns about the euro zone’s sovereign debt troubles. Bank of America shares lost more than 3%, while JPMorgan slipped 1.6% and Citigroup shed 2.2%. The S&P financial index dropped 2.2% as a result. Concerns about the fiscal stability of Greece, Portugal and Spain have rattled global markets over the last two weeks, curbing the appetite for riskier assets. Wall Street has slid through critical levels recently, with the DJIA now back below 10,000 and the benchmark S&P 500 now off 8.1% from its 15-month closing peak of Jan 19. The S&P 500 is still up 56.2% from its March 2009 bottom.

Shipbuilding Orders On The Rise
Newbuild orders are back on the rise in the wake of the global financial crisis that started towards end of 2008 for shipbuilders, with Keppel Corp’s specialised shipbuilding unit, Keppel Singmarine sealing $140m worth of contracts for a rock dumping fall pipe vessel and a pair of tugs. Meanwhile, ASL Marine grabbed a $38.5m order for a diving support vessel from an overseas customer.

China Animal’s 4Q09 Net Profit Up 40.5%
China Animal Healthcare, which makes drugs used to treat animals, has posted a 40.5% jump in 4Q09 net profit to Rmb48.5m due to firmer sales, and said it expects a future revenue boost from selling more forms of vaccine for pigs. The quarter ended Dec 31, 2009 saw revenue rise 36.2% on-year to Rmb133m. Sales of drugs in powdered form that made up 80% of total revenue surged 44.5% to Rmb107m following poorer sales in 3Q09 due to a recent bird flu scare.

The company now expects top line growth to come from the biological drugs segment, which refers to vaccination drugs used mostly on pigs against the hand, foot and mouth disease, as well as the swine fever. The company posted an 18.8% increase in sales of biological drugs to Rmb15.8m in 4Q09 and expects to raise the contribution from this segment from about the current 10% to 50% in 2010.The company also announced it had invested Rmb210m to buy Jianxiang Hemu Biological Technological – which produces the vaccine against the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome – from 4 shareholders.