Derek Goh presenting at yesterday's lunch briefing for analysts and fund managers at Peach Garden in OCBC Centre. Photo by Cheng Siew Hooi.

Greater China (sales in USD, above) has increasingly proved to be the cornerstone of Serial's growth.

For 1H this year, Serial yesterday declared a 0.28 cent a share dividend, which is more than double the 0.13 cent given out for the same period last year.

The final dividend may be twice as much as the interim dividend, said Derek Goh, the chairman and CEO, at an analysts’ briefing yesterday.

Some highlights of the 1H results:

* Revenue came up to $371.0 million, about 59% of which came from Greater China, a region which has proven to be a key success factor for Serial's growth. 

If annualized, the revenue for the full year would come up to $742 million, or a growth of 33%.

* Earnings per share was 0.89 cents which, if annualized, will give 1.78 cents, translating into a PE of 7.6X for the current year.

Derek Goh said yesterday that typically the annual dividend is 40-50% of the net earnings.

Assuming 1.78 cents a share in earnings, the total dividend for the year could be 0.89 cents a share, or a yield of 6.6% based on the recent stock price of 13.5 cents.

Derek Goh (left) and CIMB analyst William Tng. Photo by Leong Chan Teik