Breadtalk

Breadtalk - No Co. specific news today to explain its rise in share price, although do note that volume is pretty light with just 196k shares traded. Latest news on grp was its qtrly results where 1Q13 earnings grew 15% y/y to $1.6m, alongside a 13% growth in revenues to $120.3m, driven by a broad-based growth across all business segments. Pretax margins improved to 2.8% from 2.4% in 1Q12 despite inflationary cost pressure on food, labour and rentals. The group remains focused on tweaking its labour needs following tighter foreign labour restrictions in Singapore and rising rental and food costs, and looks to sustain profitability through cost rationalisation and productivity enhancement. Note that the grp is a persistent speculation of it being a takeover target after Thailand’s Minor International, raised its stake to 10% in early Apr.