(Reuters) -Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries said on Friday it expected fiscal 2023’s underlying earnings to be higher than last year but warned of impact from slow global growth and inflation, after posting a 56% jump in its first-half profit.
The company’s strong performance in the first half of 2023 was driven by the conventional energy segment, which saw higher power prices in the Singapore electricity market and increased operational capacity in the renewables segment, it said.
Net profit before exceptional items for the conventional energy segment — the company’s biggest revenue generator — surged 47% to S$435 million ($324.41 million) in the six months ended June 30.
Net profit before items for the renewables segment jumped 54% to S$117 million.
The Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings-owned company said its attributable profit from continuing operations for the period was S$608 million, compared with S$389 million a year ago.
Sembcorp proposed an interim dividend of 5 Singapore cents per share, compared with 4 cents a year ago.
However, the company warned of impact on business performance on projected slow global growth amid high inflation, tight monetary policy and geopolitical tensions.
The Singaporean utilities firm’s integrated urban solutions segment reported a net profit before exceptional items of S$48 million for the first half, compared with S$62 million last year.
The decline was mainly due to lower commercial and residential land sales in the Vietnam urban business, as well as lower earnings from the waste management business in Singapore, it said.
Last month, the company said it had terminated plans for the possible sale of its waste management business and its energy-from-waste plant, in a deal that could value the unit at $500 million.
($1 = 1.3409 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Echha Jain and Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Rashmi Aich)