KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24): Inari Amertron Bhd reported a 47% year-on-year jump in its net profit for the first quarter ended Sept 30, 2020 (1QFY21), as an expansion in revenue on higher volume loading of products, together with a reversal of deferred tax provision, helped offset unfavourable movements in foreign exchange.

Consequently, net profit rose to RM70.07 million from RM47.73 million, while revenue climbed 10% to RM347.62 million from RM316.61 million, its stock exchange filing today showed.

The group, which is involved in the electronics manufacturing services industry and provides semiconductor packaging services such as backend wafer processing, assembly and testing in radio frequency (RF) products, declared a first interim dividend of 2 sen per share, to be paid on Jan 8, 2021. The payout is higher than the 1.3 sen it declared in 1QFY20.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the group’s net profit has about doubled from RM35.47 million in 4QFY20 — mainly due to higher revenue from its radio frequency (RF) business, buoyed by strong demand — while revenue climbed 59% from RM233.34 million.

Barring any sudden deterioration in the global economy, the group said it is positive on its earnings prospect for FY2021, as it expects the strong demand it sees in the RF business to continue into the next few quarters, due to the launch of and growth in new 5G phones with 5G frequency bands, which require additional RF components over 4G ones.

“We will continue to improve production capacity to meet the continued growth in 5G mobile phones over the next few quarters, improve utilisation of existing capacity in opto-electronics and other business units, and invest in automation in areas of improvement to drive better margins and revenue.

“The downside on the prospects are a weakened US dollar and high gold prices,” it added.

Inari shares closed 12 sen or 4.63% lower at RM2.47 today, valuing the group at RM8.12 billion. Over the past one year, the stock has jumped 29.5%.