Latest / Investor Exchange / Incredible Holdings: Q3 2025 Financials and Business Outlook
Transcript
- 0:02Time for another Investor Exchange podcast. Here are your hosts, Matt and Sally.
- 0:08All right, let's dive in. Imagine
- 0:09you've got a company's latest financial report right in front of you.
- 0:13Not the shiny summary, but, you know, the actual statement. This one says all the numbers. Exactly.
- 0:18The kind that really tells the story, if you look closely. That's what we're doing today.
- 0:22We're looking at incredible holdings, LTD's unaudited interim financials.
- 0:26For the third quarter and nine months, ending 31 March 2025.
- 0:32Right. And this isn't just any filing, is it? No, it's actually required by the regulators.
- 0:37You might remember they had that auditor's disclaimer opinion back for FY 2022.
- 0:42Ah, yes. Important context. Shows there's been some, well, scrutiny needed.
- 0:47Definitely. That history hangs in the background.
- 0:49But today, our focus, our mission, really, is on the current picture.
- 0:53What do these latest numbers tell us about their performance now?
- 0:56Yeah, what happened financially, why did it happen according to them,
- 0:59and crucially, what's the outlook?
- 1:01Exactly. We'll walk through the usual suspects, profit and loss,
- 1:05the balance sheet, their financial position cash flow, and then tie it into
- 1:09what the company says about the market and their strategy.
- 1:12Sounds good. Getting that full snapshot from their own reporting.
- 1:15Okay, let's start with the P&L, the profit and loss.
- 1:17Top-line revenue. Looking at the nine months ending March 2025 compared to last year, wow.
- 1:24What jumps out immediately? Well, jumps out is putting it mildly.
- 1:28It's staggering, really.
- 1:30The revenue collapsed. Collapse? How bad?
- 1:32For the full nine months, total revenue just plummeted.
- 1:36It went from S2,362,000 down to just $185,000.
- 1:42Wait, S185,000 from over, S2.3 million dollars? Yes.
- 1:46That's a drop of over 92%. 92%. Wow.
- 1:50And if you look just at the most recent quarter, the three months, same story.
- 1:53Down from S203,000 to only $17,000 $17,000 in revenue for a whole quarter Down
- 2:0091.6% Well, it's almost a complete halt in sales activity Okay,
- 2:04okay, let's unpack that How does that happen?
- 2:06The report breaks it down by business segment, right? Where did the damage come from?
- 2:09It does And the company says the main reason is simply decrease customer demand
- 2:13Cross the board Pretty much.
- 2:15The luxury goods segment, trading watches, got hit incredibly hard.
- 2:19Revenue there for the nine months fell from S2.1 million dollars to just $28,000.
- 2:2428,000? From millions? Yeah.
- 2:27Distribution revenue also downed significantly, from S241,000 dollars to S155,000 dollars.
- 2:34Even the small loan financing bit dropped, send dollars to two dollars.
- 2:38So demand just vanished. And they also explicitly mention fierce competition
- 2:42making things worse. OK, so with revenue basically wiped out,
- 2:46you'd expect gross profit revenue minus direct cost to just disappear,
- 2:51too, did it? Well, this is where it gets kind of weird.
- 2:53Despite that massive revenue drop, the gross profit actually increased for the nine months.
- 2:57Increase how? It went up from $24,000 last year to $60,000 this year.
- 3:03So the profit margin must have soared then. Exactly.
- 3:05Gross profit margin jumped from about 1% to over 32%, 32.43% to be precise.
- 3:11How on earth do you do that with no sales? The report says it's down to a reduction
- 3:15in cost of sales resulting from discounts offered by our suppliers.
- 3:18Wait, so they sold hardly anything, but the cost of the few things they did
- 3:23sell dropped so much that the profit on those few items actually went up.
- 3:26That seems to be the story, yeah.
- 3:28Lower cost per unit sold thanks to supplier discounts. That feels precarious,
- 3:33relying on supplier discounts like that. Yeah.
- 3:35Is that sustainable, do you think? That's the million-dollar question,
- 3:38isn't it? Is this a temporary thing, maybe clearing old stock or a real shift?
- 3:43If those discounts disappear, that margin improvement vanishes,
- 3:46too. Right. It highlights that the only thing propping up gross profit were those discounts.
- 3:51OK, so below gross profit, what about other income and just general running
- 3:55costs? Did they slash expenses?
- 3:57Oh, absolutely. They had to. Other operating income did decrease from S-961,000
- 4:02to $677,000, partly because of less demand for their digital marketing services.
- 4:08OK. But the expense cuts were drastic.
- 4:11Administrative expenses were slashed. For the nine months, they went from S$2.2
- 4:15million down to just $617,000.
- 4:18Huge cut. Where did that come from?
- 4:19Mostly lower wages and salaries down S$24,000 just in the last quarter and consultancy
- 4:25fees, which were down S$77,000 in the quarter. Big savings there.
- 4:29And finance costs also came down quite a bit. S$193,000 to S$143,000 for the nine months.
- 4:36They mentioned an interest-free period for Janmar 2025, which.
- 4:41So dramatic cost-cutting across the board, combined with that weird gross profit situation.
- 4:47What did it mean for the bottom line, the overall loss? Well,
- 4:51for the nine months, the group reported a net loss of S$34,000.
- 4:55$34,000. Okay, still a loss, but how does that compare? Compare that to the
- 4:59loss in the same period last year, S$1,415,000.
- 5:03Wow. So a massive improvement in the loss, even with revenue collapsing. Exactly.
- 5:07Those huge cost cuts in admin and finance, plus the better gross margin percentage,
- 5:11were absolutely critical.
- 5:13They massively shrunk the loss. Still losing money, though, especially in the last quarter.
- 5:16Yes. The loss for the three months ending March 31st was S-180,000,
- 5:20better than the S-372,000 loss in the same quarter last year, but still red ink.
- 5:25It shows how vital that cost control was. A real survival mode situation.
- 5:29But you can't cut forever. Let's shift to the balance sheet then,
- 5:32the snapshot of their financial health. How did assets and liabilities look
- 5:36at 31 March 2025 compared to, say, 30 June 2024?
- 5:42Well, non-current assets, things like property equipment, stayed pretty stable,
- 5:46around $17.6 at $17.7 million.
- 5:50Current assets, the short-term stuff, actually saw a slight increase overall,
- 5:54from $2.56 million up to $2.59 million.
- 5:58Any interesting moves within current assets? The mix sometimes tells a story. Yeah, definitely.
- 6:03Inventories dropped quite a bit, from $59,000 down to $17,000.
- 6:07They link that to managing stock because of the low demand, which makes sense.
- 6:10Right, selling off what they had.
- 6:12But interestingly, cash and cash equivalents increased. Went up from only S-47,000 to S-177,000.
- 6:19Ah, that's notable. Where did that cash come from? And partly related,
- 6:22trade and other receivables money customers owed them decreased a bit.
- 6:25From S-2.45 million dollars to S-2.39 million dollars, The report says that's
- 6:30mainly due to collecting outstanding payments.
- 6:32Okay, so collecting cash from customers and selling down inventory helped boost the cash balance.
- 6:37That's positive, even if the total cash is still, you know, relatively low.
- 6:41What about the other side?
- 6:43Liabilities, what they owe? Current liabilities, the short-term debts edged
- 6:46up slightly from $6.91 million to $6.96 million. Oh, the increase.
- 6:52Mostly due to outstanding professional fees, according to the report.
- 6:55Shows up in trade and other payables. Okay. And long-term debt.
- 6:59Non-current liabilities decreased slightly by $15,000, mainly from loan repayments.
- 7:05So if we put current assets against current liabilities, they're operating with
- 7:09negative working capital, aren't they? They are, yes. And it actually got slightly worse.
- 7:13How so? The negative figure went from S4.35 million dollars to S4.37 million
- 7:18dollars because that small increase in current liabilities is just a bit more
- 7:22than the small increase in current assets.
- 7:24So short-term obligations still significantly outweigh readily available assets.
- 7:29That negative working capital highlights a constant pressure,
- 7:32right? Especially with revenue so low.
- 7:35Absolutely. It means they rely heavily on generating cash quickly or finding
- 7:39financing just to meet their immediate bills.
- 7:42Makes the cash flow statement really important. Right. Let's follow the money then.
- 7:45What does the cash flow statement tell us? Where did the cash actually come
- 7:48from and go during these nine months? Okay, this is another really interesting part.
- 7:52Remember that S$34,000 accounting loss for the nine months?
- 7:56Yeah. Despite that loss, the group actually generated S-156,000 in cash from
- 8:03its operating activities.
- 8:05Generated cash while reporting a loss. How does that work?
- 8:10It happens because of non-cash expenses on the income statement,
- 8:13like depreciation, and importantly, changes in working capital.
- 8:17Ah, like the inventory going down and collecting receivables. Exactly.
- 8:20Those actions turn assets into cash. So selling inventory brought cash in.
- 8:26Collecting money owed brought cash in. These inflows, plus adjustments for non-cash
- 8:30items, were enough to overcome the operating loss in things like paying suppliers,
- 8:35resulting in positive cash flow from operations.
- 8:37So operationally, they managed to bring in some cash despite the sales drought.
- 8:41That's a key positive. It is. A big shift from the prior year when operations
- 8:45used over S1.1 million dollars in cash shows some efficiency in managing what they have.
- 8:52Okay. What about investing or financing activities? Any big moves there?
- 8:56Nothing reported under investing activities, so no major asset buys or sales
- 9:02sucking up or generating cash. Okay.
- 9:04Financing activities used a pretty small amount of cash, just $26,000 over the
- 9:09nine months. That was mostly for repayments on leases and loans.
- 9:13So positive cash from operations, nothing much in investing,
- 9:16small outflow for financing.
- 9:18What was the net effect on the overall cash pile? The net result was that S-130,000
- 9:23increase in cash and cash equivalents over the nine months.
- 9:26Bringing them to that S-177,000 figure we saw on the balance sheet. Exactly.
- 9:30So they managed to build their cash balance a bit, which is quite an achievement
- 9:34given the revenue situation.
- 9:36Drillian by that operating cash flow. Okay, we've dissected the numbers,
- 9:39the performance, the position, the cash. Now let's look at the commentary.
- 9:43What does the company say about the road ahead? The market conditions, their strategy?
- 9:48Yeah, this is where they address those headwinds directly. For distribution,
- 9:52they see potential from Singapore's logistics growth.
- 9:56There's a big but. Which is? A major electronics customer scaled back way back
- 10:00in 2021, and that's still a material challenge.
- 10:03So their plan is, well, try to find new customers, basically,
- 10:07in Singapore and elsewhere.
- 10:09Okay. Looking for replacements. What about luxury goods and loan financing in Hong Kong?
- 10:14For luxury goods, the watch trading, they mentioned some positive signs,
- 10:18like luxury spending, maybe picking up localized strategies.
- 10:22But again, counterbalance. Competition again. Increased competition.
- 10:25Yeah. Yeah, possibly resources shifting to mainland China.
- 10:28And they also flag weak consumer sentiment generally, uncertainty in Hong Kong tourism.
- 10:34So like distribution, the plan is to look for opportunities in other regions.
- 10:38That's tough. And loan financing in Hong Kong, same theme.
- 10:41Growth in the credit market, virtual banks, means more competition for them.
- 10:45So they're talking about digital transformation, risk management,
- 10:48and again, trying to find new customers in Hong Kong. So across the board,
- 10:52it sounds like significant pressure, and the main plan is find new customers in markets, which...
- 10:57Given the numbers we saw, makes sense they need something new.
- 11:00It does, and that leads directly to the really big strategic piece they mentioned. The RTO.
- 11:05Exactly. On March 11th, 2025, they signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding
- 11:11for a proposed reverse takeover with a company called Shengtai International SDNBHD.
- 11:18And they framed this RTO how?
- 11:20Explicitly as part of their strategy to diversify returns and achieve long-term growth.
- 11:25It's positioned as a potential game changer, a way to bring in a whole new business,
- 11:29presumably because the current ones are struggling so much. A major pivot, potentially. Yeah.
- 11:34And quickly, on dividends for shareholders. None declared. They state clearly
- 11:38it's because the company made a loss for the nine months.
- 11:41Makes sense. Okay, finally, let's loop back to where we started those historical
- 11:44audit issues from the FY 2022 disclaimer.
- 11:47What's the update there? Are they cleaning those up? They provide some updates.
- 11:51On the SGX Notice of Compliance, they say an independent review is done,
- 11:55and they're working with auditors now to assess its impact.
- 11:58Regarding the old inventory balance issue from way back in Descent 2021,
- 12:03the current auditors observe counts from July 2024 and were able to verify inventory
- 12:08quantities as of June 30th, 2024.
- 12:10So, some progress there on establishing a reliable baseline going forward.
- 12:15What about those other tricky ones, the website costs and the money owed between
- 12:18related companies? Right.
- 12:20For the website development costs impairment, that Korean platform they say
- 12:23the project's on hold, focuses Singapore-Hong Kong now.
- 12:26They use language like, they will endeavor to provide sufficient information
- 12:31to auditors on the impairment assumptions for June 2024.
- 12:35Endeavor to provide. Sounds like it's still ongoing. Seems so.
- 12:38Similar language for the loan to a subsidiary and amounts due from related companies.
- 12:42They will endeavor to provide the auditors with the appropriate audit evidence
- 12:46for the impairment assessment as of June 2024. So, still working on providing
- 12:50the necessary proof for those historical items.
- 12:53Yes, but the board states its view that the impact of these issues is adequately
- 12:57disclosed in these unaudited interim results.
- 13:01It points to these being historical items they are still working through with the current auditors.
- 13:07Okay, so let's try to pull this all together. What's the big picture from this report?
- 13:11Well, Incredible Holdings is clearly in a really tough spot.
- 13:14Revenue has absolutely collapsed across their main businesses,
- 13:17hit by low demand and fierce competition. That's the bad news.
- 13:21But they've managed costs incredibly aggressively, admin finance costs slashed,
- 13:26And they got help from supplier discounts, improving their gross margin percentage, even on tiny sales.
- 13:32All that combined meant their net loss shrunk dramatically compared to last
- 13:37year, although they are still loss making.
- 13:39And financially. Financially, they managed to increase their cash balance slightly,
- 13:43mainly by collecting receivables and cutting inventory.
- 13:46But negative working capital actually worsened a bit, showing ongoing short-term
- 13:50pressure, a key positive, though.
- 13:53Operations actually generated cash over the nine months. And the Outlook strategy.
- 13:58The Outlook commentary confirms the tough market conditions.
- 14:01Their stated plan involves hunting for new customers and markets for the existing businesses.
- 14:06But the really big strategic play is that potential reverse takeover with Shengtai.
- 14:12That's positioned as the path to diversification and future growth.
- 14:16Right. So this is a picture of a company whose core operations are facing,
- 14:20frankly, existential challenges, but they're managing costs tightly and trying to generate cash.
- 14:25The RTO looks like the main hope for a different future.
- 14:29Precisely. Which leaves you, the listener, with a pretty big question to ponder
- 14:33as you watch this company.
- 14:34We've seen the numbers. We've heard their commentary about the severe headwinds
- 14:38in their current businesses.
- 14:39So can this proposed RTO, bringing in Shanghai, truly deliver the diversification
- 14:45and long-term growth they need to fundamentally change things?
- 14:48Or is it, you know, trying to graft a new engine onto a struggling ship?
- 14:51Something to definitely keep an eye on as they navigate forward. Thank you.
- 14:55Music.