KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 30): 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd's net profit rose 4.1% to RM16.76 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2018 (3QFY18) from RM16.1 million a year ago, on increased revenue and improvement in gross margin by 0.7% points.

"The improvement in gross margin was attributed to higher gross profit margins across most categories," said 7-Eleven Malaysia in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today. 

This resulted in a higher earnings per share of 1.48 sen for 3QFY18, compared with 1.45 sen for 3QFY17.

Quarterly revenue increased by a marginal 1% to RM568.52 million from RM563.12 million a year ago, driven by the growth in new stores, higher average spend per customer and better consumer promotion activity.

For the cumulative nine months (9MFY18), the group posted a 13.3% increase in net profit to RM38.82 million from RM34.25 million a year ago, while revenue grew 1.3% to RM1.66 billion from RM1.64 billion in 9MFY17.

On prospects, 7-Eleven Malaysia is of the view that the trading conditions for 4QFY18 are expected to improve with the anticipated heightened consumer sentiment.

"We expect to see further improvements in the next quarter by pursuing our core strategy pillars of operations excellence, cost management and commercial innovation," it added.

7-Eleven Malaysia shares closed down one sen or 0.77% at RM1.29 today, with 6.26 million shares done, bringing a market capitalisation of RM1.46 billion.