This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 15, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Dialog Group Bhd’s net profit in the second quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (2QFY18) grew 27% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM115.76 million from RM91.36 million, thanks to stronger contributions from its Malaysian operations as well as its joint ventures (JVs) and associates.

In a stock exchange filing, Dialog said its associate company — Pengerang LNG (Two) Sdn Bhd — achieved commercial operation last November and received the first commercial liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo at its newly commissioned regasification terminal at the Pengerang Deepwater Terminal. “This contributed to higher share of joint ventures and associates results for the current quarter,” it said.

Quarterly revenue, however, was rather flat at RM857.43 million compared with RM856.78 million a year ago.

The integrated technical services provider to the oil, gas and petrochemical industries said revenue from its Malaysian operations grew 10% during the quarter, contributed by midstream and downstream activities, in particular engineering, construction and plant maintenance services for various projects.

In line with the higher revenue, net profit contribution of its Malaysian ops grew 25%, Dialog said.

Outside Malaysia, however, its operations remained challenging in 2QFY18, as it saw lower sales of specialist products and services in India, Russia and Australia, besides reduced engineering and construction activities in Singapore, and fewer fabrication activities in Australia and New Zealand.

In the cumulative six-month period ended Dec 31, 2017, Dialog’s net profit jumped 60% y-o-y to RM276.69 million from RM172.69, while revenue rose 8% to RM1.64 billion from RM1.51 billion.

Going forward, Dialog said it remains confident its strategy and well-structured business model can withstand the current oil price volatility and currency movements.

It also said its ongoing operation of the 1.3 million cu m Pengerang Deepwater Terminal Phase 1 is now being expanded by an additional 430,000 cu m.

“The construction of Phase 2 is on schedule. We are also securing new potential partners for Phase 3, which will include the development of industrial land and more petroleum and petrochemical storage terminals,” it added.