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SINGAPORE: Singapore commuters had continued to stick with Comfort taxis last year despite the economic downturn.
That gave a boost to the group's taxi revenues, which were also lifted by an increase in cashless transactions, a larger fleet and a lower number of idle taxis.
The company's full-year net profit rose 9.7 per cent to about S$220 million. The bottomline was largely in line with expectations and due to lower operating expenses and a drop in fuel and electricity costs.
However, it was a different story for its overseas taxi segment, where ComfortDelGro has operations in places such as Australia and the United Kingdom.
Its revenue fell 2.2 per cent to S$3.05 billion due to a drop in demand from corporate accounts, which were further hit by the translation effect of a weaker British pound and Aussie dollar.
Revenue for its overseas taxi operations dropped by 12.7 per cent to S$292.7 million. The overseas segment makes up about 40 per cent of total group operating profit.
"Our clients were largely the banks, the bigger firms, the advertising houses, and the insurance firms," said Kua Hong Pak, group chief executive officer and managing director of ComfortDelGro.
"And when the economy took the downturn and hit a patch, everybody started to cut back and that's when our business got affected. Even if the economy was to improve, I think once you're used to cutting your cost, you tend to say 'we can live with that, let's continue to live with that'."
To boost its UK market, ComfortDelGro has been looking to diversify its taxi operations there.
The group said it has been moving into the business of private fleet cars, which operate like chartered vehicles, to complement its taxi services.
For the fourth quarter, ComfortDelGro's net profit rose about 20 per cent on-year to S$54 million. Revenue increased 3.4 per cent to about S$794 million.
In its Singapore bus operations, ComfortDelGro registered a 1.3 per cent drop in daily ridership to 2.27 million. This was due to the partial opening of the Circle Line MRT, which could further hit bus ridership when it is fully open.
Said Kua: "We know the stations are going to open from April this year onwards compared to the five stations that were opened in the first phase, and so we really do not know what the total impact will be, but we feel there will be an impact."
SBS Transit posted a 35-per cent rise in full-year profit to S$54.6 million, while revenue fell about five per cent to S$697 million.
ComfortDelGro is proposing a final dividend of 2.67 cents a share, up about 11 per cent on-year.
- CNA/yb
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