This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 19, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd’s (BToto) net profit for its third quarter of financial year 2019 (3QFY19) ended Jan 31, 2019 came in flat at RM59.07 million, compared with RM59.23 million in the year-ago quarter.

Pre-tax profit, however, fell 4.4% to RM94.43 million from RM98.77 million previously, mainly due to lower results of Philippine Gaming Management Corp (PGMC) and Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd, but mitigated by improved results from HR Owen plc, the group said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.

Quarterly revenue, meanwhile, contracted 3% to RM1.36 billion from RM1.4 billion previously, due to lower sales from the used car segment at HR Owen, and lower contribution from PGMC.

The board declared a third interim dividend of 3.5 sen, payable on May 10, bringing its to-date cumulative dividend to 11.5 sen from 12 sen in the previous corresponding period.

BToto said Sports Toto’s pre-tax profit fell 6.2% in 3QFY19, primarily due to higher prize payout, while PGMC reported a pre-tax profit decline of 65.8% on lower lease rental income earned from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

For the cumulative first nine months of FY19 ended Jan 31, 2019, BToto’s net profit grew 5.6% year-on-year to RM206.25 million from RM195.28 million a year ago, despite revenue slipping 1.1% to RM4.21 billion from RM4.26 billion.