KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): WCT Holdings Bhd’s net profit soared nearly 17 times to RM59.27 million in its fourth quarter from RM3.51 million a year ago, thanks to stronger revenue and its other income which surged about six-fold.

Revenue for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 (4QFY17) grew 28% year-on-year to RM579.4 million from RM453.17 million. According to its income statement filed with Bursa Malaysia, its other income jumped to RM248.67 million from RM42.38 million last year.

The group proposed a final single-tier dividend of 3 sen per share in respect of FY17, subject to shareholders' approval. If approved, the 3 sen payout is higher than the total 1.25 sen it recorded in FY16.

For its full year of FY17, WCT's net profit jumped 126% to RM154.62 million from RM68.38 million a year ago, though revenue slipped 1% to RM1.91 billion from RM1.93 billion.

“We continue to concentrate on improving the margins from our on-going projects as well as better efficiencies along with improved cost management. The group's financial performance in 2017 is considered satisfactory, especially when we take the current economic condition into account,” said its group managing director Datuk Lee Tuck Fook, in a separate statement.

WCT's engineering and construction segment recorded revenue of RM1.4 billion, but incurred RM33 million in operating loss, after an impairment of the amount due from a contract customer in Qatar that amounted to RM165 million, and an unrealised foreign exchange loss of RM20 million. If not for these, WCT said the segment would have recorded an operating profit of RM152 million.

As for its property development and property investment and management segments, operating profit jumped to RM346 million from RM109 million, mainly due to better operating results from the property investment and management sub-segment, as well as fair value gains from the group’s investment properties that amounted to RM225 million.

Moving forward, WCT said the engineering and construction segment will continue to build on its strong order book having secured several new infrastructure contracts worth about RM2 billion in 2017.

“The group expects construction margins to remain healthy given the higher proportion of infrastructure-related jobs in its order book,” said WCT.

Meanwhile, with a subdued property market outlook, WCT said it will be cautious in launching new projects and will continue to intensify the sales of its existing property stocks.

It also updated that Paradigm Mall Johor Bahru, which opened for business last November, has started showing positive results. It reached an occupancy rate of 92% for the mall's net lettable space of 1.3 million sq ft.

Shares in WCT closed four sen or 2.47% lower at RM1.58 today, for a market capitalisation of RM2.22 billion.