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Centurion Corporation, a foreign worker dormitory operator, has announced it could pay out an interim dividend for the financial year 2012 when its first quarter results are released.
“We owe it to the shareholders,” said Tony Bin, Executive Director of Centurion, in a Business Times report.
“We want to work on a basis where there is a constant dividend stream. As we make headway into new markets and grow the business, we want to recognise the support of our shareholders.”
Centurion was unable to declare its dividends in the last financial year, as a one-off reverse purchase expense of S$100,000 and a one-off goodwill impairment of S$12.97 million dragged its earnings into the redline. The company recorded a net loss of S$6.16 million as of 31 December 2011.
If the reverse takeover expenses and impairment charges were excluded, Bin said the company would have recorded a net profit of up to S$6.91 million, compared to S$5.68 million in 2010.
The company’s dormitory business contributed S$5.38 million in the financial year 2011.
Both Kong Chee Min, Chief Executive of Centurion, and Bin are optimistic about the company’s business, noting that they are not concerned about the potential impact of higher foreign worker levies.
They also believed that the business will continue to expand as demand remains robust.
“Demand still outstrips supply for dormitory space,” said Bin. “Even if the impact of the levies lessens the amount of foreign workers, I believe there would still be an underlying demand to support growth.”
The company is also making way for dormitory business overseas after it signed six memorandums of understanding to build dormitories in major manufacturing and industrial hubs in Johor, Malaysia. Two have already been completed, which add around 9,000 beds, while the other four are undergoing different stages of negotiations.
“We believe that the software of managing the dormitory is something we could export over there. It is a scaleable business,” noted Bin.
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