Lian Beng announced 3QFY14 PATMI of S$33.6m – up a whopping 178% YoY – mostly due to a boost from the TOP of Mspace, its fully sold 55%-owned industrial development. This was mostly within our expectations, as highlighted in our earlier special situation note “Anticipating Earnings Spikes” dated 3 Feb 14. The group’s topline for the quarter came in at S$257.5m, which increased 122% again from the impact of MSpace.

Lian Beng continues to enjoy a healthy construction order book of S$1.1b. We note the group currently sits on a strong cash balance of S$174.9m as at end Feb 14, and management indicates that it could “continue its business expansion through acquisition, joint venture or strategic alliance.” We will be speaking with management later today about these results and, in the meantime, put our Buy rating and fair value estimate of S$0.58 UNDER REVIEW.

Source: OCBC Research - 11 Apr 2014