Frencken shares fall 15.5% after Q1 earnings dive

[SINGAPORE] Shares of Frencken fell by as much as 15.5 per cent or S$0.47 to S$2.57 shortly after market open on Tuesday (May 19), weighed down by a dive in its latest first-quarter earnings as well as a broader fall in the tech sector.

As at 9.30 am, nearly 3.4 million shares had changed hands.

Frencken’s shares were subject to a circuit breaker on Tuesday morning on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). A circuit breaker – which is imposed when a stock’s price moves beyond a pre-specificed percentage threshold – temporarily restricts trading to facilitate more measured market movement.

The share price drop is a speed bump for Frencken, which has been on a tear in recent months. Up to May 18, the stock had seen a 120.3 per cent increase year to date.

Frencken’s fall also tracks the broader drop in tech stocks overnight. The S&P 500 ended about 0.1 per cent lower at 7,403.05, weighed down by tech stocks, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 0.5 per cent to close at 26,090.73.

Other tech stocks on SGX also experienced declines in early trading. As at 10.23 am, AEM was down by 4.6 per cent, and UMS Integration saw a 4.4 per cent loss.

The drop in Frencken’s shares also came after the release of its Q1 business update on Tuesday, where it posted a net profit of S$8 million for Q1 2026, down 20.2 per cent from S$10 million in the year-ago period.

This was mainly due to lower revenue contributions from the semiconductor and analytical life sciences segments of Mechatronics Europe, the technology solutions provider said. The quarterly net profit also included a foreign exchange loss of S$1.1 million.

For the quarter, revenue fell 6.4 per cent to S$202 million from S$215.8 million.

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This was primarily driven by a 7.7 per cent year-on-year decrease in mechatronics division’s revenue to S$180.4 million, which was partially cushioned by robust front-end and back-end sales growth from key semiconductor equipment customers in Asia.

Its medical segment’s revenue improved 5 per cent year on year to S$34.7 million due mainly to increased customer orders in Europe.

Analytical life sciences segment’s revenue declined 21.2 per cent year on year to S$36.2 million as customer demand in Mechatronics Europe remained soft in Q1, Frencken said.

Industrial automation segment’s revenue was relatively stable at S$7.6 million, contributed mainly by a key data storage customer’s capital expenditure on upgrading and maintenance of assembly and test lines.

Meanwhile, the APS Division’s revenue grew 4.3 per cent to S$20.5 million, lifted by higher sales to automotive customers.

The group on Tuesday said that while the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain amid ongoing geopolitical conflicts and foreign exchange volatility, it anticipates improving momentum for the rest of the year.