Friday 29 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 4): Petronas Gas Bhd (PetGas) has benefited from the electricity tariff hike effective early this year, which saw its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2014 (3QFY14) go up 10% to RM418.63 million from RM379.81 million a year ago.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia this evening, PetGas said its revenue for the quarter was RM1.12billion, up 9.8% from RM1.02 billion a year ago, primarily because of higher utilities revenue as a result of higher offtake by customer and the upward revision of electricity tariff effective Jan 1, 2014.

This is coupled with higher gas transportation and gas processing revenue under the new Gas Transport Agreement (GTA) and Gas Processing Agreement (GPA).

The group also announced a second interim single tier dividend of 20 sen per share in respect of the financial year ending Dec 31, 2014.     

Three out of its four key segments enjoyed an increase in revenue. They are: gas processing (up RM21.7million, or 6.1%), gas transportation (up RM26.1 million, or 8.56%), and utilities (up RM63.8million, or 31.8%). Meanwhile, its regasification recorded a drop by RM11.0 million, or 6.8%

However, the current year to date profit (9MFY14) has dropped 24.5% to RM1.27billion compared with the same period in 2013.

The drop is mainly due to the recognition of deferred tax assets (DTA) arising from the nvestment tax allowance (ITA) that it was granted for the LNG regasification segment. Excluding the impact of the DTA, profit for the period increased by RM220.9million or 21.0%.

“Profit before tax increased by RM78.1 million in line with higher revenue coupled with lower other operating and administration expenses. These, however, were partially offset by higher cost of revenue mainly arising from the revision of the fuel gas prices in January and July 2014,” said PetGas.

Moving forward, the group is expected to continue delivering sustainable and steady returns as the structure of the new GPA and GTA, effective April 1 this year, are not materially different from the previous structure. The group added that its regasification business will provide additional earnings from its full year operation in FY14.

The group's counter closed 14 sen lower at RM21.8 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM43.02 billion.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share