Keeping its head barely above water

• Poor results despite being profitable in 3Q08. As mentioned in SGX previous reports, Inter-Roller’s revenue in FY08 will be adversely affected by pullbacks in project timelines due to delays in airport construction. As such it is no surprise that revenue for 3Q08 came in 34% lower than 3Q07 while cumulative revenue for the first nine months of 2008 was 47% under the same period in 2007.

• Decline in direct costs in line with falling revenue. More delays, translates to lower revenue which in turn resulted in a decline in materials, sub-contracting and other direct costs by 31% to S$12.3 million as compared to S$17.7 million in 3Q07.

Full-year losses likely. With the global economy showing no signs of recovery, SGX believe project delays will continue to haunt the company's earnings outlook. Coupled with management's guidance, SGX continue to expect Inter-Roller to register full year losses for FY2008.

HOLD; TP:S$0.15