Good morning. Welcome to ST Engineering's full year 2024 results briefing. We will begin with a presentation by our Group CFO, Cedric Foo. Our Group President and CEO, Vincent Chong, will then give his remarks. After that, we will end today's session with a Q&A for the analysts. Without further ado, may I invite Cedric to give his presentation, please?
Yeah, thank you. Welcome to ST Engineering's full year 2024 results briefing. A very good morning to everyone here in person, as well as those joining us via webcast. Slide two, please. Before I begin, I would like to bring your attention to slide number two, which states, among others, that the Group's actual performance, outcomes, and results in the future may differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Slide three, please. This is our agenda for today. I'll be covering Group Highlights, Business Discussions, Productivity, Debt Profile, Contract Wins and Order Book, Investing for the Future, Dividends, and Outlook. Slide four, please. First, let's take a look at Group Highlights. Slide five. I'm pleased to report a very strong set of second half 2024 and full year 2024 results.
First, on the left, for second half 2024, the Group achieved a solid year-on-year growth: 10% growth in revenue, 11% growth in EBITDA, 18% growth in EBIT, 26% growth in PBT, and 20% growth in net profit. For the full year 2024, the Group also performed very well. On a year-on-year basis, 12% growth in revenue, which crossed the SGD 11 billion mark, 11% growth in EBITDA. And as you know, EBITDA is a good proxy for operating cash flow, growing to SGD 1.6 billion, 18% growth in EBIT to SGD 1.1 billion, which exceeded the SGD 1 billion mark, 23% growth in PBT to SGD 863 million, and 20% growth in net profit to SGD 702 million. The above good performance was due to our concerted efforts all across the Group in successfully executing on our order book.
Order book as of end 2024 came in at SGD 28.5 billion, with about SGD 8.8 billion to be delivered in 2025. Slide six, please. This slide shows revenue by segment, revenue by type, and revenue by location of customers. First, from the left, the pie chart shows revenue breakdown by segment. 39% was contributed by Commercial Aerospace, or CA in short, 44% contributed by Defense and Public Security, DPS in short, and 17% contributed by Urban Solutions and Satcom, USS. DPS as a segment includes both local and international customers. It also covers commercial domains, not just defense domains, including public security and safety, critical information infrastructure, and others. Hence, the DPS segment revenue in the pie chart, which was SGD 4.9 billion in 2024, is different from the revenue derived from pure defense products and solutions, as shown in the middle, which is SGD 3.5 billion.
So I just want to clarify that the SGD 3.5 billion is a subset of the SGD 4.9 billion, yeah, or pure defense is a subset of DPS, which has more than defense. Revenue by type. In the center of the slide, the bar chart shows revenue by type of products and solutions over the past three years. They have all been growing. Commercial type increased from SGD 7.1 billion in 2023 to SGD 7.8 billion in 2024. Defense revenue grew a very robust 15% from SGD 3 billion in 2023 to SGD 3.5 billion in 2024, reflecting the opportunities arising from ongoing conflicts and geopolitical tensions around the world. Revenue by customer location on the right of the slide. Asia contributed 51%, U.S. 23%, Europe 19%, and others 7%. Slide seven, please. This slide shows the year-on-year increase in Group revenue by segment.
As you can see, all segments contributed to the growth, and our revenue grew from SGD 10.1 billion to SGD 11.3 billion as a Group, a 12% increase contributed by all segments. Slide eight. This waterfall chart shows a strong EBIT growth of 18% from SGD 915 million in 2023 to SGD 1.1 billion in 2024, driven by business growth and cost savings. Slide nine shows a significant net profit growth of 20% year-on-year, which crossed the SGD 700 million mark for the first time. Next, I will move on to cover business discussions by segment. Slide 11. For Commercial Aerospace, revenue grew 12% to SGD 4.4 billion. Excluding aircraft sales in both 2023 and 2024, revenue growth would have been 15%. This growth is contributed by stronger sales from engine MRO, nacelles, PTF, and composite panel.
Although the base revenue for Commercial Aerospace is now much higher at SGD 4.4 billion, the second half 2024 growth rate, I must point out to you, year-on-year was not as high as the first half 2024 growth rate year-on-year, and this isn't a surprise, as Jeff has anticipated and spoken to you before. Nevertheless, we remain confident in the growth trajectory for the CA business. We will share more at Investor Day, 18th of March, and we do expect our growth rate in the midterm going forward to be stronger than industry growth rates, given our very strong competitive position. EBIT for Commercial Aerospace improved 19% to SGD 400 million due to stronger revenue and good product mix. Aircraft OEM have been unable to produce new aircraft fast enough to meet demand from airlines. Hence, existing aircraft fleet remain in service for longer.
This resulted in a lack of PTF-capable aircraft feedstock, impacting our PTF business volume. Nevertheless, we can and we are optimizing our hangar capacity since the capacity is fungible by increasing airframe MRO revenue to offset the lower PTF revenue. We are also looking at optimizing our CA facility network around the world for greater efficiency. In terms of contract wins, CA secured SGD 4.7 billion of new contracts in 2024, of which SGD 1.8 billion of new contracts were signed in the fourth quarter. Next, slide 12 on DPS. DPS revenue grew 16% to SGD 4.9 billion. This strong growth was contributed by all subsegments. Digital business comprising cloud, AI analytics, and cyber achieved a revenue of SGD 645 million.
On a BOP basis, base operating performance, that is, by excluding one-off U.S. Marine post-sale completion gain of SGD 16 million, which you will remember, EBIT for DPS increased 15% to SGD 636 million, which is more in line with revenue growth of 16%. DPS secured SGD 5.3 billion of new contracts in 2024, of which SGD 1.7 billion came in the fourth quarter. Slide 13, moving on to USS segment. Revenue grew 1% to close to SGD 2 billion. This growth was contributed by URS and partially offset by Satcom. EBIT for USS improved from SGD 10 million to SGD 40 million, attributed to higher revenue, the absence of asset divestment loss, and lower Satcom severance cost. USS secured SGD 2.6 billion of new contracts in 2024, of which SGD 0.7 billion was for the fourth quarter. During the quarter, TransCore recorded its first tolling solution win in Southeast Asia.
We have been talking about cross-selling and synergies from this very big acquisition of ours. So we are very heartened indeed that this tolling contract win is extensive. It will cover numerous expressways and lanes. It is a result of our U.S. tolling technology, which exists at TransCore level when we bought it, being sold into Asia, where the rest of the Group has a very strong customer network. The size of the synergy here is also meaningful, and we expect to do more of such cross-selling synergistic wins. Slide 14. While challenges in the Satcom subsegment remain, its transformation continues. We are encouraged by early signs of recovery, but we're not out of the woods yet. Revenue for fourth quarter 2024 was 12% higher year-on-year. Operational EBIT turned marginally positive in fourth quarter 2024. So this is an encouraging early sign.
Satcom recorded key wins such as Indonesia's SATRIA-1 satellite network and Brazil's energy connectivity project in collaboration with Viasat, just to name a few. Now I've completed the Business Discussions. Let me now move on to Productivity. Slide 16. Our OpEx over revenue ratio has been trending well over the years. In 2024, we achieved the lowest OpEx over revenue ratio of 10.6% in recent years. As the Group grows, we are experiencing scale and network effects, which have been translating to productivity gains, cost savings, and better margins. Such savings have enabled us to mitigate inflation and improve margins. Slide 17, Debt Profile. Our borrowings as at 31st December 2024 reduced by 5% year-on-year from SGD 6.1 billion to SGD 5.8 billion, and this is despite a 3% stronger U.S. dollar to Singapore dollar exchange rate, impacting the revaluation of U.S. dollar loans back to Singapore dollars.
If we work on a constant FX basis against end 2023 FX level, our borrowings as at end 2024 would have been even lower at SGD 5.7 billion. EBITDA increased 11% year-on-year to SGD 1.6 billion. Again, very strong cash flow. Gross debt to EBITDA leverage ratio correspondingly reduced from 4.2x in 2023 to 3.6x in 2024, due to the twin effect of a reduction in debt, the numerator, and the increase in EBITDA, the denominator. Fixed versus floating rate interest rate ratio stood at 69%-31% as at end 2024. The Group weighted average borrowing cost for 2024 was at a competitive level of 3.6%, as previously guided to be mid-threes. Now looking ahead, we expect this weighted average borrowing cost to remain at mid-3% in 2025, assuming two small rate cuts in 2025.
Our credit ratings remain very strong, with AAA stable by Moody's and AA+ stable by S&P. I think even without the two rate cuts, we will still be around mid-threes, yeah, because the impact will not be that significant. Next, Contract Wins and Order Book. Slide 20 highlights some of our major wins in fourth quarter 2024. In this period, the Group secured SGD 4.3 billion worth of new contracts, with SGD 1.8 billion from CA, SGD 1.7 billion from DPS, and SGD 0.7 billion from USS. This brings the total new contract value for the year 2024 to SGD 12.6 billion. Slide 21. The Group ended the year with a robust order book of SGD 28.5 billion, another new record. About SGD 8.8 billion of the order book is expected to be delivered in 2025. This strong order book provides visibility for future revenue in the coming periods. Slide 22, Investing for the Future.
Slide 23, actually. Even as we perform well in 2024, we continue to focus on the future, to invest in line with our strategy and to optimize our portfolio. Our investment in the future covers three main areas: capacity and capability building, two, geographical market expansion, and three, operational efficiency. Firstly, for capacity and capability building, this includes the new airframe MRO capacity such as Changi Creek here in Singapore, Ezhou, and Pensacola in Florida. Gul Yard, also in Singapore for our marine business, the fourth data center in Boon Lay, AI and cyber capability building, an area we are very focused on, and to develop and roll out Satcom's next-generation Intuition platform. Secondly, for market expansion, this includes 155mm ammunition export to Europe, partnership for in-country production of 8x8 armored vehicle in Kazakhstan. This is a milestone for us, as it is a significant land platform program.
Smart City Platform in Lusail City, Qatar, and as I described earlier, the first TransCore tolling solution in Southeast Asia. Thirdly, for operations improvement, we are doing the following: harnessing AI for internal productivity, continuing to seek procurement savings by leveraging scale and also across international business units of ours. We have also formed a Vietnam Competency Center. It has about 200 people now, one year also into the program, and this headcount is expected to increase. Additionally, our Vietnamese colleagues are also taking on higher value-added work, and we can do this productively and as well with cost arbitrage vis-à-vis Singapore or elsewhere. Slide 24. Dividends. 25, actually. We are pleased to announce that a final tax-exempt cash dividend of SGD 0.05 per ordinary share has been recommended by the board for the financial year ended 31st December 2024. We are increasing our dividend per share by SGD 0.01 per share.
Payment of the final dividend is subject to the approval of shareholders of the company at the upcoming AGM on 24th April. The record date, 30th April, and if so approved, shareholders will receive the dividend payment on 15th of May. For the first three quarters of 2024, we have paid three interim dividends of SGD 0.04 each for the financial year. And if we add that to the SGD 0.05 final dividend, this will make a total of SGD 0.12 per share. Sorry, of the interim dividends of SGD 0.12, this will make a total of SGD 0.17 per share. So let me say it again. For the first three quarters of 2024, we have paid three interim dividends of SGD 0.04 each. Four times three, making a total of SGD 0.12 interim dividends in total.
Hence, the total dividend for the year ended 31st December 2024 will be SGD 0.17 per share if you add the SGD 0.05 final dividend to the SGD 0.12 interim dividends. Slide 26. Next, let's move on to the Outlook. I'll just read out the Group President's and CEOs' message. We delivered a very strong set of results in 2024, despite an uncertain and challenging environment. We are confident that our strong fundamentals will continue to position us well, even as we confront a fast-changing landscape. We have a robust order book and a competitive market position, which will underpin our continuing revenue growth and performance. So this brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you, Cedric. May I now invite our panelists up on stage, please?
The panelists this morning are Vincent Chong, Group President and CEO, Cedric Foo, Group CFO, Ravinder Singh, Group Chief Operating Officer, Technology and Innovation and President, Defense and Public Security, Tan Lee Chew, Group Chief Commercial Officer, Market Development and President, Smart City and Digital Solutions, and Jeffrey Lam, Group Chief Operating Officer, Operations Excellence and President of Commercial Aerospace. I will now hand the floor over to Vincent to deliver his remarks. Vincent, please.
Well, good morning, everyone here at ST Engineering Hub, as well as those who joined us virtually. Thank you for being with us this morning and welcome to ST Engineering's financial results briefing for the second half and full year of 2024. As Cedric mentioned, we ended 2024 on a very positive note, with a strong second half performance driving improvements across a range of financial metrics.
Cedric had outlined the key factors behind those results, and I will just highlight some key takeaways. In the second half of 2024, Group revenue grew 10% year-on-year, and Group EBIT rose 18%, with Group net profit up 20% compared to 2023. These improvements contributed to the stronger full year 2024 compared to 2023. Group revenue rose 12% higher, closed 12% higher at SGD 11.3 billion. Group EBIT crossed the SGD 1 billion mark to SGD 1.08 billion. Group net profit reached a new level of SGD 702 million, or a 20% increase that outpaced the annual revenue growth, driven by a stronger margin mix across segment projects. At the segment level, Commercial Aerospace posted a 12% increase in revenue. As we had anticipated, the segment revenue had a more gradual second half growth after more than 10 consecutive or successive quarters of double-digit year-on-year growth.
Its full year EBIT grew 19%, reflecting an improved margin or EBIT margin of 9.1%. As we had informed in the last briefing or the last results briefing or quarterly updates, we are addressing near-term shortages in aircraft feedstock for PTF work by reallocating capacities and resources to capitalize on stronger airframe MRO demand. Notwithstanding the near-term effects of PTF feedstock situation, at the close of 2024, our PTF business achieved a mid-single digit EBIT margin percentage, as expected, and with a revenue of SGD 706 million in total for PTF business, surpassing our revenue target of SGD 700 million for PTF set for 2026. So we have already achieved our 2026 target ahead of time, two years ahead of time, actually. The Airbus A330, A321, A320 PTF programs are now an integral part of our Commercial Aerospace business. The programs have matured and stabilized over the years.
And given our much higher total Commercial Aerospace revenue now, compared to pre-COVID levels, we feel it's no longer as meaningful to single out PTF targets going forward. That said, it remains a valuable contributor to the segment's revenue and profitability, but we will not call out PTF targets going forward, given the reasons which I've just mentioned. Now, moving on, looking ahead, we remain confident, as Cedric mentioned, in the growth trajectory of our Commercial Aerospace business. We will share more at the upcoming Investor Day on the 18th of March. I hope all of you can attend. But we do expect our Commercial Aerospace growth to be stronger than industry growth rates for the Commercial Aerospace industry, given our strong value proposition, growth track record, as well as our own growth plans. More to come on the 18th of March.
Moving on, the Defense and Public Security segment performed very well, with revenue rising 16% and BOP EBIT, our base operating performance EBIT, up 15% in full year 2024 compared to full year 2023. So with that, we have to exclude the post-closing adjustment for U.S. Marine business that we benefited from in 2023. If you exclude that effect, DPS EBIT went up 15%, as the slide would have shown you just now. This also serves as a good segue to highlight that our defense business sales increased 15% to SGD 3.5 billion, as presented by Cedric. We saw stronger demand for defense-related products and services, driven in part by heightened geopolitical tensions and ongoing conflicts around the world. Next, our Urban Solutions and Satcom segment delivered a stronger 2024 than 2023, as expected.
While this segment had a weaker second half year-on-year, second half revenue and EBIT were stronger than the first half of 2024, in line with our expectations and in line with what we have communicated as our outlook in the last couple of briefings, and as Cedric mentioned, TransCore secured its first tolling solution win in Southeast Asia. We are very heartened by that. While we are not at liberty to disclose contractual details at this time, it was a synergistic win involving the provision of full-fledged tolling solutions for numerous expressways and lanes, leveraging on the Group's customer networks in Southeast Asia and TransCore's very strong value proposition and technologies in the tolling solution space.
Satcom, while its full year revenue remained weak in 2024 due to its ongoing transformation and focus on enhancing revenue quality, we are heartened to see early signs of improvement in the fourth quarter of 2024, with a 12% year-on-year revenue increase versus the same period last year and marginally positive operating EBIT in the quarter, but as Cedric said, we are not out of the woods, but we are heartened by the so-called early signs, but we'll continue our focus on turning around the business for Satcom subsegment. On order book, a strong order win of SGD 4.3 billion in the fourth quarter, our total of SGD 12.6 billion order wins for 2024 strengthened our order book to a new level at SGD 28.5 billion.
While we are heartened by the strong order wins in fourth quarter 2024, I will say again that quarterly order book fluctuations are a normal part of our business, and therefore it is more important to look at our order book win track record and order book trends. Notwithstanding short-term variations in contract win timing and project completions, key points to note are that our robust order book is a leading indicator of growth, and our strong revenue pipeline ensures sustained revenue growth over the next few years in the medium term. These are points which we have made before, but it's worth mentioning again against our strong set of results in 2024. The Group has a strong track record of focusing on improving operational efficiencies, productivity, and cost management to drive better margin outcomes, as evidenced by the resilient results even during the COVID years.
Such focus continued in 2024 and will continue in the years ahead. And Cedric has already showed you the unit operating expenses, which went down to 10.6% of total revenue in 2024, a new low. In summary, we delivered a strong set of results in 2024, with three segments each playing a key role in delivering growth and profitability. A healthy project mix, along with cost efficiencies and procurement savings, helped improve our margins. Building on this strong foundation, we have set our next five-year targets with a clear commitment to continue investing in growth and innovation and continual portfolio management to high-grade our portfolio.
We remain mindful of external factors which we cannot control, as well as execution risks in today's fast-changing external environment, and we will stay focused in the pursuit of our strategic objectives as we navigate the challenges in our operating landscape, as we have so effectively done over the years. You will hear more from us at our Investor Day on 18 March, so we'll give you a more comprehensive overview and description of our plans and our growth plans in the next five years. And finally, on dividend, our Board of Directors has approved a final dividend of SGD 0.05 per ordinary share, subject to shareholders' approval at the upcoming AGM. This will bring the total dividend per share for 2024 to SGD 0.17 if approved at the AGM, compared to SGD 0.16 per share paid out for each of 2023 and 2022.
This increase is in line with our unwavering focus in returning value to our shareholders as our net profit progressively improves, with concurrent disciplined allocation of growth capital and prudent management of our balance sheet. So on that note, we'd like to take questions that you may have at this time.
Thank you, Vincent. We will now move on to the Q&A session for the next half an hour. I will open up the floor to our participants in the room first. For our analysts online, please click the raise your hand icon, and we will place you in the queue. May we have our first question, please?
Hello. Thanks. Thanks, Management. Congrats for the very strong results and the very good achievement over the past few years, reaching many of your targets two years in advance. I have three questions. The first question is regarding the SGD 0.05 dividend.
We raised from SGD 0.04 to SGD 0.01 for the fourth quarter. So the question is, should we take it as a run rate for future quarterly dividend payout? Just want to confirm this is not just one quarter impact. Yeah. Second question is regarding your order book delivery guidance. We are guiding for an SGD 8.8 billion delivery for FY 2025. This is SGD 0.9 billion higher than the start of last year when you guide for FY 2024. So I want to have a sense of the breakdown of this additional SGD 0.9 billion. How much is for Defense and Public Security? How much for CA? And how much is for USS? That's the second question. The third question is regarding the Defense and Public Security margin. Year-on-year, based on my own adjustment in the second half this year, there is still a slight improvement in margin year-on-year.
Last year was about 11.5%, and this year's second half is 12%. But if you compare with the first half, there is a moderation. First half was like 13%. Second half is 12%. So I would like to have some understanding about the margin outlook. Should we expect a similar level of margins going forward, or you expect the margin to moderate? That's all from me. Thank you.
Okay, well, thank you, Roy. I will let Ravi talk about the DPS margin last. As we told you before, you know, margin is also dependent on project timing, margin mix. But Ravi will be able to give you more insights. Now, we do not disclose order book delivery by segment. It is true that the SGD 8.8 billion of order book delivery expected in 2025 is higher than the previous year.
But we will not be able to break down for you, or we do not break down for you the segments. Dividend. As we said before, and we say again, as our net profit progressively strengthens, we will have more capacity to return value to our shareholders through dividend. But at the same time, we also need to reserve capital for growth, to capture growth. We are a yield-come-growth stock. So we'll make sure that we return value through dividend, but at the same time, reserve capital, growth capital, so that we can pursue those growths that will create value for our shareholders. And it's our commitment still that as our net profit continues to strengthen, progressively strengthens, we will have more capacity to look at dividend returns to our shareholders. But maybe later on, Cedric can add on as appropriate.
But let me just go to Ravi about the DPS margin.
Right. Thanks for your question. So first of all, I think as Vincent mentioned, in our business in Defense and Public Security, our projects tend to be quite long and multi-year. And a lot of it depends on when the project is completed and also the milestones. So when we look at margins, we tend to look at it over the year. And if you compare the margin last year, 2024, with the margin 2023, without the one-off, actually, they're very comparable. I would say the DPS margins are quite good. And of course, with the orders that we have won, and I think the opportunities that we are pursuing, we hope to continue to maintain the margins.
Yeah. Thanks, Roy, for your question. I'll just add that Investor Day is 18th March, is about three weeks from now.
I think then we can treat the subject of dividend, which is driven by our growth, more meaningfully and allocate more time and describe in more detail. But I seek your patience on that subject.
Yeah.
For the order book. I understand that you will not guide the breakdown of the delivery guidance. Just want to have a sense because year-on-year growth in terms of delivery guidance for the whole group is like maybe 12%, 13%. So I just want to have a sense which segment of the three are going faster. In terms of the order book delivery guidance for next year.
Okay. So we will not break down the delivery guidance by segment.
And we just tell you that we can only share that it's SGD 8.8 billion to be drawn down from the order book. But at the same time, we also have in-year revenue, as you are aware. But maybe I can share this with you. In 2024, the higher order book was contributed by all three segments. All three segments had higher order book in 2024 at the year-end of 2024 compared to year-end 2023.
Got it. Okay. Thank you.
Hi. Morning, everyone. Shekhar from RHB. Two more questions on margins, but this time for the other two segments. So I'll start with Commercial Aerospace. Second half, 2024, EBIT margin was fairly strong. Is there a one-off in that number? Second question is on the USS margin. Very solid set of numbers for Satcom, fourth quarter turning EBIT positive.
How should we look at the margin outlook for USS over the next year? Two more questions. One is on the associates. I noticed the DPS associate earnings was fairly strong in the first half, and then it tapered off. What led to that increase and then decline? And last question is on investing for growth. Vincent, you mentioned that ST Engineering is a growth plus yield company. You're not comfortable giving a yield guidance right now, but looking at CapEx, so where are you growing and what kind of CapEx outlook we should look at for the next two years?
I think at the Investor Day, we don't also break down by CapEx growth category, but we have been investing in the strategic areas.
So if you go back to our growth plans, our strategy, which has remained steadfastly consistent since 2018, we talked about strengthening our base business, core businesses, while pursuing new growth areas, including International Defense and Smart City. So you will hear this theme going on because it has been a very good strategy for us. So on Investor Day conference, we will share more details with you on how we intend to move on this front in each of our segments. So it will be a holistic overview for the next five years.
Just to understand, you'll be investing more so you can get higher CapEx?
Run rate will get tapered off in the last few years. So our run rate, I mean, for replacement capital, CapEx, and so forth, we are somewhere between SGD 400 million-SGD 500 million. But then this excludes M&A.
If there are M&A opportunities, we may spend more, but run rate is between SGD 400 million-SGD 500 million of CapEx, and that gives us capacity to pursue our base business growth, but then there are incremental CapEx requirements that are not baked in, which will include M&A or if there are opportunistic aircraft purchases, which will later on be recycled in terms of the capital, we might also do so, supported by, of course, a robust set of returns that we expect to get, and so far, we have been achieving those return targets over the years, so I think you have two other questions on margins for Commercial Aerospace and a second half, whether there are any extraordinary items for CA and then for USS, what do we expect the margin outlook to be, and then we'll then move on to Ravi to talk about the SOC and JVs.
Why is second half a little softer than first half? Okay. So maybe Jeff can start.
Okay. Your question was whether there were one-offs. We had a combination of product mix and stronger performance due to productivity improvements, which we obviously will continue to work on. So there isn't a one-off happening, but we have a combination of multiple businesses that are working towards productivity improvements. Thank you.
Is it a new run rate?
I won't say it's a new run rate, but there are always challenges in the market. But we aspire to achieve a better outcome.
As you can see, Commercial Aerospace, our margins were really quite resilient even in the COVID years. And we have already achieved the mid-single-digit EBIT margin expectation for PTF. And our fundamentals continue to strengthen. For the first time, we passed SGD 400 million of EBIT for Aerospace.
I think let our track record speak for itself, and we'll hear more during the Investor Day.
Thank you.
On the USS front, the Urban Solutions business, as you would appreciate, is no different from what Ravi was mentioning earlier. They are project milestone-based, and our revenue, as well as profitability, will track the milestones as we deliver to those projects. On the Satcom side, we feel good coming into 2025 with the fundamentals, which is why we called out Q4 being early signs of improvement that we see. The commitment that we made in terms of cost savings on the cash flow front continues to be front and center for us, and we are on track to deliver the SGD 60 million-SGD 70 million of cash flow cost savings, as we had communicated earlier.
So all of this will add to our EBIT profile as we work into 2025.
Sure. SGD 60 million is already achieved?
The SGD 60 million-SGD 70 million that we communicated is an annual savings that you will see. Obviously, as we get into the impact of that for the bottom line, we had also made it clear that not everything is going to fall into the bottom line because of amortized engineering costs, etc. We said earlier that about 60% of that will help us.
So we have achieved that number for this year?
Yes.
Which, of course, helped in because we did have lower revenue, but the cost savings side actually provides the mitigation.
Okay. So maybe we can go to Ravi. It's a very simple, quick answer.
Thanks for the question. The contribution actually is from Experia for the Singapore Airshow.
Every two years, in the first half of the year, there will normally be a contribution from them, and that's where the variation comes from.
Okay.
Ravi also happens to be the chairman of Experia.
Okay.
Is there any question from online? Okay. Come, please, Jason.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. Just three questions from me. So right now, at this juncture, how are you assessing the potential impact of tariffs that were recently implemented or tariffs that have already been announced on your U.S.-based Commercial Aerospace operations? And maybe discuss if you have any contingency in plans if the tariff conditions worsen. Second question is, GE and Safran has guided for a 15%-20% increase in LEAP engine output for 2025. So should we be expecting nacelle production to keep pace with their guidance this year?
And third question is maybe just a quick update on where we are today with the New York congestion pricing project. I think Trump just came up and said that the March 21st deadline for the project to conclude. So have you seen any changes in your discussions with partners in other cities that were initially interested in implementing congestion pricing as well?
Okay. So there are three questions. Tariffs and then tariffs in the U.S. The other one is output of aircraft from engines, I mean, and nacelles based on what GE and Safran said. So I'll let Jeff answer that. And the third one on New York congestion pricing, the two questions, there are two sub-questions there. One, what do we think is the immediate impact? And then the other one is whether the other cities are still looking at it. Yeah.
Just keep in mind that the constellation or the global space for congestion pricing is not just limited to the United States. On potential tariffs, we are watching the space very closely. I think we've got to see what actually gets finally done because there's a lot of news coming out from there. So our competitors will also have the same considerations and situations. And for our Commercial Aerospace business, ours is a global network. So we have some degrees of freedom to balance our workload and portfolio of customer locations. We also have supply chain resilience and measures in place. So I think it's a bit too early to talk about the effects, but we're watching because right now there's a lot of news flow, but the actuals remain to be seen. Okay. But we are watching the space very closely.
But I can ask maybe Jeff for our Commercial Aerospace business to talk a little bit about that and then let him talk about the engines as well, engines and nacelle prospects as well.
Okay. In terms of tariff policies, I think it's not yet clear what's going to happen. But we do have a complex, and should I say resilient supply chain of suppliers both within the U.S. and outside the U.S. And we source largely from suppliers in the U.S., which may also be affected by the supply chain coming from outside the U.S. So it remains to be seen how this would be dealt with depending on the eventual tariff policy. In terms of GE, Safran, LEAP engine output, they have been outputting an insufficient number of engines in past years. As a result, the spare engine market is insufficiently supplied.
So what they will supply is a combination of both with the new aircraft deliveries as well as with the spare engine market. So we are happy to hear there are good forecasts. We continue to take guidance from Airbus in terms of the number of A320neo deliveries, which is our largest nacelle market. And obviously, Airbus is going to aim for a good outcome. And we saw last year that eventually they actually came down on the original forecast. So we are hopeful, and hopefully the engines can be supplied well. And then all of us will also follow the drumbeat.
Thank you.
Okay. And then we have the New York congestion pricing.
Yes. So on New York congestion pricing, obviously we are monitoring it closely. As you said, the news came out this morning, but we've been monitoring the situation as it unfolds.
The O&M arrangement with MTA is still ongoing, and in the event that future circumstances might impact that, I just want to also iterate that this is immaterial at the group level in terms of revenue and also immaterial for us at the USS level, so less than 1% at the group level and maybe less than 2% at the USS level. The second question around interest in congestion pricing, since the congestion pricing went live in January, we've received actually a lot of interest from Europe as well as from Southeast Asia just inquiring about congestion pricing as a project and as a program.
Yes, so I think we got to look longer term and beyond any specific market. We have good solutions, and it is really part of a set of measures, a part of the measures that can address continued urbanization of the world population.
So we'll stay tuned. So far, we've been getting good inquiries, and we'll see. We still remain optimistic.
Any other questions? Anyone from the line? And then we'll come back to you, Paul, after we take a question from the online.
We'll now move on to participants online. May we have Lorraine from Morningstar, please? She's not. Okay. We'll move on to Luis from Citi. Luis, please unmute to talk, please.
Hi. Good morning and congratulations on the results. I joined the call late, so apologies if these questions were in the presentation. Two questions. The first is, on your order win outlook for this year, are you expecting similar as to last year or even better? We note, of course, that your disclosure of the order wins is now coming ahead of the results. So should that be a positive signal?
Second question is housekeeping on the TransCore ASEAN contract. Appreciate you can't disclose the counterparty, but are you able to disclose whether it's a public or private sector contract?
I'm sorry, Luis. Southeast Asia, whether it's public sector or private sector, okay. I'll let Lee Chew talk about it. At this time, we don't have liberty to go into a lot of details because contractually, we are obliged to keep things confidential for now. Let's see whether during Investor Day, we can say more, but not at this time. The fact of the matter is we've been awarded the contract, and it is a synergistic win. I'll let Lee Chew elaborate. Now, order win, we do not give a forecast on order wins, which is why, Luis, perhaps that was before you dialed in.
I did recap the fact that order wins come. There are fluctuations quarter to quarter. It is more important to look at our order win track record over the last few years. As Cedric showed you, our order book, which is a derivative of our new order win, has almost doubled, in fact, more than doubled compared to pre-COVID, if we exclude the U.S. Marine divestment. Our order book has doubled over the last few years. So it is more important, Luis, even as we see quarter to quarter, year to year fluctuations, look at the longer-term trend and our track record of successfully competing for new contracts due to our competitive advantage, our value proposition, and our project execution. So keep that in mind. Now, then you also asked, this time we decided to announce new order wins a few weeks before our results briefing.
For those of you who have been following us for some time, you would recall that that was what we used to do. And we think that it will give insights before the results briefing, and we will continue to do so for you to get some indication of our order wins, which again is a contributor to our order book. So it's not exactly a new practice, Luis. We used to do that. And given that we only report full year, half-year results, we thought that maybe sharing more with you ahead of the quarterly and half-yearly calls may be helpful to you. Okay. So maybe I'll move to the second question to Lee Chew.
Sure. Just a simple answer. It is a private entity that we've contracted with.
Thank you, Luis. Now we'll move on to Karen from JP Morgan Hong Kong.
Hello. Hi, Vincent.
How are you and all the management? Yeah. Good to reconnect again. I used to cover your company. Anyway, I'm back again. Quick question. It's a follow-up question related to the NYC congestion charge. I heard that the impact on annual basis is not that significant, but is there any event that we might have to do the write-off? And in that case, I think the impact might be quite substantial. I don't know whether we are able to give any color on that. And also related to margin, I don't know whether we can talk much about it, but is it possible to understand, is there any margin differential between the EPC stage and also O&M stage? And then that's the very first question. Sorry, I do have a follow-up question regarding the contract part of the defense part of the business as well.
Are you able to give a little bit more color with regard to our progress in terms of getting orders from NATO standardization, which I think is an important initiative last year? Thank you.
I'm sorry, Karen. First of all, very nice to hear from you. The second question, the last part, were you referring to Satcom or what were you referring to?
NATO, N-A-T-O. So I remember last year we were trying to capitalize on the opportunity over there because right now for the defense part of business, it's mainly home-driven, and then last year, I recall that we actually managed to get ammunition-related contract, which I think is a very important step forward. Just wondering, I know we probably can't talk too much, but maybe just give some color on that front.
I think Ravi will be very delighted to tell you the success stories that we had in 2024 in the international defense space. We have actually secured quite a few good wins. And of course, at the Investor Day, Ravi will give you a more comprehensive overview of our track record in the last few years and what we expect in the next few years. So we'll come back to Ravi very shortly. But to your first question, for the congestion pricing contract in New York, we don't own the assets. We are basically the EPC contractor to help them build the solution and do the maintenance. So there is no impairment effects on us at all. And we said that if the O&M contract or the congestion pricing operation gets terminated, hopefully not, but if it does, then the impact on our revenue is very small.
At the group level, it's less than 1%. At the USS level, it's circa 2%. So it's not something that would be a material impact on our group. Then, as Lee Chew mentioned, there are also interests from outside of the U.S. to look at congestion pricing solutions. And so we still remain long-term positive about the potential of a congestion pricing solution. But maybe Lee Chew , is there anything that you'd like to add?
No, I think you described it well. Maybe I just answered the question around margins, whether there's any differentiation between EPC margin and O&M margin. And unfortunately, we're not at liberty to kind of disclose the split of the margins across these projects. So yeah.
All right. But anyway, thanks for your question, Karen. Really nice to hear from you today. I hope we have answered your questions.
So let's maybe say a second one to Ravi. Yeah.
Karen, thank you very much for your question. We announced earlier that we sold 155 ammunition to Europe last year, 2024. Last year. And I would say that overall, our international defense business is doing well, better than in the past. I think it's improving. Last year, in fact, we had a few wins that were the first. I mean, the 155 is one of them, first time we did it. We also managed to sell some electronic solution to Europe. We sold UAVs to a country in Asia. And as we announced, we're doing some work with Kazakhstan on the 8x8. So overall, I would say that we've done better than the year before, and there are a lot more prospects which we are pursuing. We are positive about the opportunities moving forward.
All right. Thank you.
Karen, I hope we've answered your questions. Maybe we can—is Lorraine also lining up? No? Okay. Perhaps we can come back to Paul. You had a question before we went to the online participants.
Yes. Thanks. And sorry to drag this. Just to zero in on your second-half results, I noticed your other OpEx did come down. I'm just wondering, part of it was impairment. Just wanted some housekeeping. What was the amount? And just to follow up on the CA question again, just on the second half again, your revenue grew 100%, but your EBIT kind of grew 50%. I know there's a bit of timing issues, but it just seemed a bit extreme, at least on the second-half numbers for your CA earnings jump.
Okay. Well, I'll let Jeff talk about the CA results in the second half of 2024.
But for the other OpEx, I mean, I think let's recap this. Our overall OpEx trend is going in the right direction. It continues to be at a lower level. In fact, 10.6% is the lowest we've gotten, at least in the last 20 years that we've kept record. So it's as a result of our discipline in pursuing operational efficiencies, procurement savings. In fact, last year, a total procurement savings and productivity improvements of more than SGD 200 million that helped us mitigate the effects of inflation. So we're actually quite heartened by the continued progress that we have made. As I mentioned to you before, we have a team of dedicated people in the continuous improvement team that the whole team will go around, the team members go around the company at every sector, working with the business units to see how best to progress, efficiency capture, productivity gains.
That team is under the oversight of Jeff. So we'll continue to make that. But to your specific question, maybe later on, we can point us to the details and we'll share with you exactly what it is. But overall, our OpEx is in a pretty good situation. Jeff?
Yeah. Okay. Just to add, the numbers are not exactly what you said, but in terms of product mix, obviously, we did have some spare sales in the second half that were not so strong in the first half.
Hello. Good morning, [audio distortion] . Okay. Just two quick questions, the first of which is, could I get some color on how the group navigates negative forex impact from the U.S. dollar on revenue? And secondly, I think you mentioned earlier that you guys are going to optimize your hangar capacity.
Could I just get some details on that in terms of CapEx, timeline? Yeah. Thanks.
Okay. The second question will direct to Jeff later on. We have been announcing our new hangar capacities, but I can tell you that we'll always be looking at optimizing our network. We have growth plans, but at the same time, we're always constantly looking at how to optimize. I'll let Jeff talk about it. Then maybe Cedric can talk about how, in general, we manage our forex exposures.
The first aspect of the forex is just accounting translation, right? If we receive U.S. dollar revenue and U.S. dollar strengthen, we will have higher revenue in Singapore dollar terms and vice versa. A 1% appreciation in U.S. dollar versus Singapore dollar will result in something like SGD 20-odd million increase in the group revenue and vice versa.
It's not very significant. But beyond accounting on the economics aspects of it, we have a very disciplined way of hedging our foreign exchange exposure on an economic basis. Ideally, we would like the revenue in a certain currency other than Singapore dollar, let's say U.S. dollar revenue. We'll negotiate with the customers for U.S. dollar revenue to match U.S. dollar cost. I think that's on a project basis. That's a natural hedge. That's what we seek to do. Or Euro revenue, part of a contract to match Euro cost. That's the best way. In which case, if we cannot achieve a natural hedge, then we will try to buy forward that particular currency that we are short of. So for example, we have U.S. revenue, but Euro cost. So we are short of Euro. So we will buy Euro forward on a hedge basis over three, four years.
So in the near term, it will be 100% hedged and then 80%-100%. And then in the next few periods, it will be quarters or so, it will be like 60%, 40%. So it's a wedge basis. The reason why we do a wedge basis is to ensure that what we are trying to hedge or reduce the volatility of, which is the exchange rate, it's not offset by forecasting error in the very long term because if you're going to hedge 10 years out, you're going to hedge a volatility that is a fixed bar of a certain value. But actually, the volatility of forecasting error is even higher. Then you will be locked of a high volume, which you may not need. So there's economics and there's accounting. So accounting is about SGD 20 million for a 1% movement.
Economics, which is more important to me, is insignificant after we hedged the way we went about it. So it's sub 1 million type impact.
All right. Now, Jeff, you can talk about Commercial Aerospace CapEx.
So we do have, as Vincent mentioned earlier, we do have capacity coming online that is under construction. So in fact, in the next three years, meaning 2025, 2026, 2027, every year we have additional hangar capacity coming online. At the same time, we continue to look at network optimization to make sure that we have capacity in the right places supporting the right customers. Additionally, our engine MRO is also adding capacity so that we can handle both the LEAP engine MRO capacity and the CFM56 engine MRO capacity. So basically, across all of our opportunities, growth markets, we are looking at growing capacity and capability. Thank you.
We will take our last question from Lorraine from Morningstar. Lorraine, please unmute your mic, ple ase.
Hi, morning. Just interested, your working capital seems to have improved a fair bit this 2024. I'm curious whether that's part and parcel of what you've mentioned to improve productivity. But were there any sort of one-off sales or something like that which would have improved that situation as well?
Okay. Lorraine, is that your only question?
Yes, it is.
Okay. Good. Yes. We do manage our working capital very closely. It is one of our internal stewardship items. We look at how to optimize working capital. And that's one of the reasons why, a key reason why we're able to reduce our working capital in 2024. We also sold some aircraft recycling our capital, so as we mentioned, and that also helped us in our working capital. Productivity as well.
So it's not a one-off item, but it is a result of our constant, consistent focus on making sure that our working capital is optimized. Maybe Cedric can add a few points.
We have also centralized a credit control team, which enables them to use more analytical tools to look at trends, sometimes with AI, credit risk. But I would say that all the segments have worked very well, especially Commercial Aerospace. That has reduced receivables to quite a big extent. And we are always very focused on capital employed, even when we evaluate new investments. We don't just look at P&L. If a particular project requires a lot of capital, we are concerned about it. So I think that's the approach that we have done for many years in a very disciplined way, and it's beginning to yield results.
Okay. Well, thanks for your question.
So we don't have any more questions from online. And for those who join us here, we appreciate your attendance physically. For those who join us virtually, thank you for dialing in. We hope and we wish that all of you can join us at the Investor Day conference that we have organized. You should have gotten the invitation on the 18th of March, where we can give you a more holistic description, projection of our next five-year plan. All right. On that very positive note, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.