KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 3): Tasek Corp Bhd's third quarter net profit fell from a year earlier as the cement manufacturer lowered selling prices amid costlier raw materials.

These factors resulted in lower profit contribution from an associate, Tasek told Bursa Malaysia today.

Tasek said group net profit fell to RM18.04 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (3QFY15) from RM21.47 million. Revenue was higher at RM165.57 million versus RM148.68 million in 3QFY14.

"The group achieved higher net revenue of RM165.6 million for the current quarter compared to RM148.7 million in the previous year's corresponding quarter mainly due to higher sales volume registered by both cement and ready-mixed concrete divisions.

"Despite the higher net revenue, the group's current quarter profit after tax of RM18 million was lower than the previous year's corresponding quarter of RM21.5 million mainly due to lower interest income and lower share of profit from the group's associated company," Tasek said.

According to Tasek, the associate contributed lower share of profit at RM1.3 million compared to RM4 million. The decline was due to lower cement sales in Sabah and costlier imported raw materials amid a weaker ringgit.

Tasek said cumulative 9MFY15 net profit fell to RM72.79 million from RM77.49 million a year earlier. Revenue was higher at RM514.11 million compared to RM483.09 million 9MFY14.

Despite lower 3QFY15 profit, Tasek plans to pay a dividend of 20%, which translates into 20 sen a share. The ex-date falls on Nov 18 this year.

Looking ahead, Tasek said current public construction projects in Malaysia were expected to drive demand for building materials.

"The ongoing activities in the MRT projects and LRT extensions coupled with some other public sector projects are expected to continue to drive the demand for cement and ready-mixed concrete in the fourth quarter of the year and this will benefit the construction sector," Tasek said.

At 2.55pm today, Tasek shares fell four sen or 0.3% to RM14.96 for a market value of RM1.81 billion. The stock saw 19,700 shares done.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)