KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 17): Tasek Corporation Bhd's net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014 (4QFY14) grew 1.03% to RM27.55 million or 22.68 sen a share from RM27.26 million or 22.44 a sen a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter stood at RM172.97 million, up 11.6% compared to RM154.99 million last year.

Tasek (fundamental: 2.7; valuation: 2.1) has proposed a 80 sen dividend for the quarter, including a final single-tier dividend of 30 sen per share and special single-tier dividend of 50 sen per share.

For the full year, Tasek's net profit expanded by 11.86% to RM105.04 million or 86.46 sen a share compared to RM93.90 million or 77.29 sen a share a year earlier.

Revenue increased by 13.7% to RM656.06 million from RM577.01 million last year.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Tasek attributed the better result to higher demand for cement in the domestic market.

"Despite the much higher net revenue, the group's profit after tax of RM27.6 million for the current quarter was only marginally higher than RM27.3 million achieved in the previous year's corresponding quarter mainly due to lower profit margins from the cement segment arising from intense price competition in the domestic market," it said.

It added that lower interest income and lower share of profit from the group's associated company during the current quarter also affected the current quarter's profit for the group.

Going forward, Tasek expects outlook for the construction sector in the first quarter of 2015 to remain positive despite the drop in oil prices and its weakening effect on the country's economy which may have a bearing on the development expenditure by the government.

"The ongoing government's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) projects and Light Railway Transit (LRT) line extensions are expected to continue to lead the construction sector's growth for the first quarter of 2015," it added.

Tasek was not traded today. It was last closed at RM15.90, translating into a market capitalisation of RM1.926 billion.

Tasek was featured as Insider Asia's Stock pick on Oct 17 and Nov 11 last year.