KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 28): 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (4QFY17) jumped 67% year on year to RM15.86 million or 1.43 sen per share versus RM9.52 million or 0.84 sen per share in the previous corresponding quarter, thanks to higher revenue and improvement in gross margins.

This was despite higher selling and distribution expenses incurred of RM6.5 million or 4.1% year-on-year as well as administrative and other operating expenses due to new store openings which had resulted in higher rental costs, store depreciation expense and utility cost.

In a Bursa filing today, the convenience store operator said revenue grew by 4% to RM546.24 million from RM523.61 million a year ago which was driven by growth in new stores, higher average spend per customer and better consumer promotion activity.

“Other operating income of RM42.7 million increased by RM10.5 million or 32.4% compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year. This is mainly attributed by compensation income from vendors of RM9.3 million in the current quarter,” it added.

For the financial year, net profit fell 4% to RM50.12 million versus RM52.18 million last year, while revenue increased 4% to RM2.19 billion compared to RM2.1 billion a year ago.

Moving forward, it said the board is of the view that the trading conditions for the next quarter is expected to remain challenging. “We expect to see continued improvements in the next quarter by pursuing our core strategy pillars of operations excellence, cost management and commercial innovation,” the group said.

7-Eleven’s shares closed down one sen or 0.65% to RM1.52, bringing a market capitalisation of RM1.67 billion.