This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 2, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: A less favourable exchange rate and lower profit margins dragged Unisem (M) Bhd’s net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2018 (3QFY18) down 13.1% to RM35.15 million from RM40.45 million a year ago.

This lowered the group’s earnings per share to 4.83 sen for 3QFY18 compared with 5.51 sen for 3QFY17.

Quarterly revenue also took a hit, falling 7.2% to RM354.71 million from RM382.32 million a year ago due to the depreciation of the US dollar against the ringgit in the current quarter under review.

“The decline in net profit for the current quarter was further impacted by the lower profit margins arising from a change in the product mix, but was partly mitigated by the gain on foreign exchange as opposed to the foreign exchange losses incurred previously,” Unisem said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

Nevertheless, the group has proposed a second interim dividend of two sen per share for 3QFY18, payable on Dec 6.

For the cumulative nine months (9MFY18), the semiconductor manufacturer reported a 42.2% decline in its net profit to RM72.34 million from RM127.44 million a year ago.

Revenue also fell 8% to RM1.02 billion from RM1.11 billion in 9MFY17.

Unisem said the US and Asia segments recorded decreases in revenue by 3.1% and 16.1% respectively, while Europe’s segment revenue increased marginally by 0.4%.

On prospects, the group expected its performance to remain satisfactory for the remaining period of FY18.