CGS-CIMB projects recovery in 2H20 on recovering sectors and government help; forecasts -4.9% for 2020 GDP

The year 2020 is a “watershed year”, according to CGS-CIMB analyst Lim Siew Khee, who estimated an average decline of 32% y-o-y for companies’ earnings per share (EPS) across the board following their 1H20 results.

“We knew 2Q20 would be bad but some corporates were hit harder than expected. For companies under our coverage, the ratio of 2Q results misses-beats was 11:29, or an estimated 2.6x,” Lim writes in a report dated August 18, charting Singapore sectors’ performance as a whole.

“Most companies were adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant economic fallout from the movement controls. Conglomerates’ book values were written down to almost distressed states,” she adds.