KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) posted an over seven-fold jump in its net profit year-on-year for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (3QFY17) to RM79.69 million from RM10.67 million, as revenue strengthens amid strong passenger growth groupwide, and as profitability from its Malaysian operations jumped.

Significantly lower taxation and zakat booked during the quarter — down 66% to RM11.03 million from RM32.03 million — also boosted bottomline, its Bursa Malaysia filing today showed.

The group, which saw a revision in passenger service charges (PSC) from January this year in its Malaysian operations, reported that quarterly revenue rose 13% year-on-year to RM1.21 billion from RM1.07 billion, as both its airport and non-airport operations registered growth.

Specifically, airport operations recorded revenue growth of 13.3% to RM1.14 billion, driven by both the aeronautical (up 14% on strong passenger growth) and non-aeronautical segment (up 13% on stronger sales from concessionaries and retailers).

Malaysian airports saw a 6.5% rise in passenger growth, while its Turkey operations registered a 7.1% growth.

Its non-airport operations contributed 4.4% revenue growth to the group y-o-y, mainly due to stronger contributions from both its hotel and agriculture businesses.

Geographically, Malaysian ops' profit before tax (PBT) grew 53.1% to RM132.4 million, while Turkey ops registered a loss before tax of RM47.3 million; Qatar ops contributed a PBT of RM5.6 million.

For the first nine months of FY17 (9MFY17) MAHB's net profit climbed 5.6 times to y-o-y to RM208.63 million from RM37.08 million, as its Malaysian airport ops, comprising airport services and duty free and non-dutiable goods, saw a 64.6% rise in PBT to RM594.11 million in 9MFY17, while non-airport ops registered an 83.1% jump in PBT to RM499.55 million.

Its overseas airport and non-airport operations, on the other hand, weighed on earnings as the segment's net loss expanded y-o-y to RM216.6 million in 9MFY17 from RM174.13 million.

Revenue for 9MFY17 rose 10.1% y-o-y to RM3.4 billion from RM3.1 billion, with Malaysian ops revenue rising 11.2%, driven by higher sales of duty free and non-dutiable goods, as well as improved contributions from its non-airport ops — mainly hotel, and agriculture and horticulture, under which it plants oil palm and sells palm oil.

Of note is that revenue from PSC and passenger security service charges for its Malaysian ops rose 17% y-o-y to RM857.89 million in 9MFY17. Likewise, retail revenue rose 17% y-o-y to RM623.54 million.

On prospects, MAHB said it expects the group's performance for FY17 to be better than FY16, on improved passenger growth, driven by visa relaxation measures for Chinese and Indian tourists, more competitive fares, favourable exchange rate for foreign tourists, and as more Malaysians travel.

MAHB shares settled 1 sen or 0.12% higher at RM8.24 today, for a market capitalisation of RM13.7 billion.