Siam Cement profits recover in 4Q12

Siam Cement (SCC) said its profits more than doubled in the 4Q12 after sales rebounded from flooding a year earlier and dividend income increased.

Net income was THB6.91bn (US$231.7m), or THB5.8 a share, compared with THB3.20bn, or THB2.66, in the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Siam Cement’s profit slumped in the 4Q11 as Thailand’s worst floods in almost 70 years shuttered factories and halted construction projects. Full-year earnings fell 14 per cent in 2012 as Europe’s financial crisis and slower growth in China damped demand for chemical products.

Bangkok-based Siam Cement plans to spend THB23.2bn on new investments in Southeast Asia to diversify its sources of income. The company will spend THB11bn on a cement plant in Indonesia’s West Java, THB5.5bn to expand a cement plant in Cambodia and THB6.7bn on a new paper plant in Thailand, it said in October.

Siam Cement shares fell 0.9% to THB454 before the announcement, which came during the midday break in Bangkok.

The group’s fourth-quarter earnings were boosted by a year- end dividend contribution from SCG Investment, it said. Siam Cement’s board has recommended a dividend payment of THB6.5 per share for the second half of 2012, it said.