Stocks to watch: Vard Holdings, Ezion, Q&M, SingPost, Rotary Engineering

SHIPBUILDER Vard Holdings on Wednesday announced that its net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015, plunged 89.7 per cent to eight million Norwegian kroner (S$1.43 million), compared to 78 million kroner in the year-ago period, mainly as a result of net foreign-exchange losses and higher interest expenses. Revenues for the quarter was up 14.6 per cent at 3.06 billion kroner, versus 2.67 billion kroner in the corresponding period last year, due to higher activity at the yards with subcontractors. Looking ahead, the group expects new order prospects to continue to be weak in the near and medium term.

Ezion Holdings on Wednesday announced its net profit for the first quarter ended March slipped 9.4 per cent to US$41,010, from US$45,245. Revenue fell 4.6 per cent to US$90.12 million due mainly to the absence of contribution from the marine and offshore logistic support services division as the projects in Queensland, Australia did not go into additional trains as originally planned.

Q&M Dental Group on Tuesday announced plans to acquire eight dental clinics in Singapore for a total of S$20.30 million to be paid in cash and shares. Towards this end, the firm has signed three separate points of agreements which also include the vendors providing guarantees and profit targets amounting to some S$16.10 million, said the firm in an announcement.

Singapore Post (SingPost) on Tuesday posted a 51.6 per cent fall in net profit from S$79.6 million a year ago to S$38.5 million for its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2015. The decrease was due to SingPost changing in the quarter its accounting policy for investment properties from the cost model to the fair value model to improve transparency. Revenue rose 28.7 per cent from S$193.3 million to S$248.1 million, boosted by SingPost's e-commerce and logistics businesses as well as contributions from new acquisitions.