CSE GLOBAL: 10 Questions & Answers

1. What are CSE Global’s main business segments and how do they contribute to the Group’s revenue? 

• CSE Global is a systems integrator and engineering company providing process controls, communication and security solutions for its customers.

• We have geographical presence in 12 countries across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa regions serving customers in the following segments:

2. How different is the Group today than it was 5 years ago?

• CSE Global has undergone significant transformations in recent years. Five years ago, our revenue stream was lumpy and inconsistent as we were dependent on large, capital intensive oil and gas greenfield projects. Today, about 95% of CSE Global’stotal revenues are flow revenues, comprising of small greenfield, system enhancements and upgrades, and maintenance contracts, which are recurring in nature.

• The Group is also more diversified now to combat the headwinds in the O&G segment. We will continue to capitalise on opportunities in the Infrastructure and Mining & Mineral sectors.

• Order wins rose 52.1% y-on-y to S$578.8m in FY2019 – the highest in 5 years. This was driven by new orders from major greenfield projects, supported by a strong growth in flow orders and supplemented in part, by the recent earnings accretive acquisitions made during the year.

FY19 results conference call (L-R): CFO Eddie Foo | Non-executive Chairman Lim Ming Seong | MD Lim Boon Kheng. Photo by Ngo Yit Sung

3. Could you elaborate on the CSE Global’s financial performance in recent years?

• In FY2019, the Group’s revenue grew 21.0% y-o-y to S$451.8m while net profit grew by 19.6% y-o-y to S$24.1 million from S$20.1 million in FY2018. Geographically, the Americas region saw strong revenue growth in FY2019 (17.1% y-on-y to S$279.4m), which are be partially attributed to the inclusion of newly acquired subsidiaries, Volta, LLC and Volta Properties.

• Our Infrastructure segment generally contributes the highest EBIT margins at approximately 10% to 14% of revenues, while Oil & Gas EBIT margins are around 5% to 7%.

4. What are some of CSE Global’s growth drivers and strategic priorities going forward?

• Going forward, we will continue to leverage on our engineering expertise to grow our business organically and build on the existing foundations in the O&G and Infrastructure segments to explore value accretive and strategic acquisitions.

• Oil & Gas Segment – We expect further opportunities in the coming years when the replacement cycle comes around with older oil fields and platforms maturing. In the meantime, the Group will continue to grow service capacity and expand product offerings for our clients through organic acquisitions.

• Infrastructure Segment – We will continue to expand our footprint in the Australia & New Zealand region through strategic acquisitions and replicate our success to bigger markets. In Singapore, CSE Global has good track record and expertise in providing solutions for public infrastructure (e.g. ERP system) – CSE Global was awarded a large security contract in late 2018 from the Singapore government. We believe that as Singapore pursues smart nation initiatives, further opportunities in the automation and security sector will be created. 

5. What are some of the key challenges and how does CSE Global mitigate or manage these?

• Over the last few years, CSE Global have successfully grown our onshore O&G business to reduce the dependency on offshore O&G segment, which now accounts for 50% of its revenues in the Americas region. As a group, CSE Global has also mitigated the risk of concentration by diversifying our revenue streams into the Infrastructure sector.

• CSE Global prides itself as a people business and is dependent on its workforce to execute projects. Hence, the Group devotes substantial amount of resources to ensure the continuity of its core engineering team through incentive and retention plans, and skills development to provide the best of class services to our customers.

6. Can you elaborate on your acquisition strategy? What are some selection criteria when acquiring/assessing potential businesses and assets?

• The strategic fit of the target company to CSE Global’s business or strategy is the most important criteria. Our long term strategy generally follows two prongs, with the acquisition either expanding our geographical presence or our range of services in the value chain to increase product offerings for our clients.

• Other key considerations also include fair valuation and strategic alignment of the management team of the target business. The acquisitions would need to be earnings accretive and generate good cashflow.

7. Can you share more about your recent acquisitions?
The Group made several strategic acquisitions in 2019 to ensure a diversified and sustainable income stream.

Oil & Gas Segment
• We made an accretive acquisition of Volta in August 2019, to complement our O&G business. Volta is a US firm that develops, designs, manufactures, and services custom-engineered electrical equipment centres (EEC). The acquisition combines CSE Global’s current engineering and automation capabilities with Volta’s expertise in designing and fabricating large scale EECs. This will allow the Group to provide full-stream offerings for our customers and enhance our position in the midstream O&G market.

• In January 2019, the Group also acquired Blackstar Services, successfully expanding our capabilities to the design and development of water treatment and disposal technology for our O&G segment.

Infrastructure Segment
• In July 2019, the Group acquired Chatterbox, which provides radio communication solutions in the UK. With the acquisition, the Group hopes to replicate our success in Australia and expand geographically beyond Asia Pacific. The UK provides ample opportunities for the Group with a communications industry that is much larger than Australia. • Further to Chatterbox, the Group also acquired RCS Telecommunications in March 2019 allowing us to expand our radio business to the Queensland region of Australia.

8. What is CSE Global’s competitive edge versus other peers?

• We view ourselves as a people business and our key strength lies in our strong engineering expertise and extensive domain knowledge.

• We maintain close and long-standing relationships with our customers, and strive to consistently deliver quality and cost-effective solutions even on tight schedules. CSE Global’s technical capabilities and ability to remain nimble allows us to compete among the likes of industry giants.

10. What is the Group’s dividend policy? Does the Group intend to switch to a fixed pay-out policy?

• We believe that our stable revenue, high customer retention rate and strong operating cashflows, will support consistent dividend pay-outs.

• Before FY2014, the Group has been paying dividends at 40% of net profit. Since then, dividend per share has been maintained at 2.75 Singapore cents per annum (c. 5.0% yield based on share price of S$0.55 as of 31 Dec 2019).

• Going forward, the Group may potentially revert to paying dividends based on a percentage of net profit, conditional on the Group achieving a certain pre-determined profit level.