notes to the financial statements - Investor Relations

CWT Limited
CHAIRMAN’S
STATEMENT
“The vision and astuteness of our board and management team
in making strategic investments that continue to expand our core
have accelerated growth while building stronger, more diverse
business models”
Dear Shareholders,
2011 again is a rewarding and eventful year for
CWT as revenue for the first time crossed the
billion dollar mark to reach S$2.58 billion. Our
newly acquired commodities supply chain business
contributed largely to the record revenue whilst
broad-based demand for our logistics services
across all regions and market segments continued
to grow in 2011. Net income for 2011 stood at
S$57.1 million and earnings per share at 9.6
Singapore cents.
Investing in growth
In this volatile environment, companies must
invest to grow, while staying fast and productive.
We have extended our competitive advantage
while investing in growth. We are evolving
from a company with core competencies in
logistics provision to an even stronger one with
added capabilities in commodities supply chain
management. We are also strengthening CWT’s
ability to innovate across what we believe are the
critical pillars for our industry: scale, connectivity,
resources and expertise. Because of these
actions, CWT is positioned for further growth.
Broadening our base
The vision and astuteness of our board and
management team in making strategic investments
that continue to expand our core have accelerated
growth while building stronger, more diverse
business models. One of the key highlights in
2011 was our integration forward into commodity
marketing and supply chain management with
the acquisition of MRI Trading to complement
our existing logistics and collateral management
activities to provide end-to-end solutions to
customers in the commodities market.
MRI, with its Head Office in Zug, Switzerland, is
one of the global leading players in commodities
marketing for base metal concentrates. Our
acquisition allowed CWT to gain a strong foothold
in the huge commodities market and opened up
a new revenue stream and opportunities for the
company. In addition, we have started offering
brokerage services through our subsidiary, Straits
Financials, as a complementary extension to
our commodities business. Our increased focus
and deepened equity in the commodities sector
will serve as an important underlying growth
strategy as we continue to ride on global market
evolvements and respond to changes in market
structure and demand.
Building capability around the world
As a constantly evolving company, we are building
capability around the world to maximise economic
benefits and harness synergies to achieve
sustainable growth in our three basic business
models, namely commodity logistics, freight
logistics and warehousing logistics.
In commodity logistics, we have expanded our
operations to Latin America and are first to deliver
LME steel billet into our US storage facilities.
We are also engaged in the coal supply chain
management business in Indonesia, which
involves coal sourcing, fulfillment and end-to-end
supply chain management.
In freight logistics, we have further expanded
our global freight forwarding network with new
investments in the UK, Turkey, Bulgaria, Morocco,
Costa Rica and Guatemala.
In warehousing logistics, we have started
operating our newly completed CWT Logistics Hub
3 and Pandan Logistics Hub in Singapore and are