This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 24, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: A stronger US dollar exchange rate lifted JCY International Bhd’s net profit in the fourth quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (4QFY15) a little over 4.5 times higher year-on-year to RM75.6 million or 3.7 sen per share.

The hard disk drive mechanical components maker recorded a profit of RM16.5 million or 0.81 sen per share in the same period last year, its filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday showed.

Revenue, however, was only up a marginal 0.75% to RM465.9 million in 4QFY15 compared with RM462.4 million last year, because while it enjoyed a better average exchange rate of the greenback against the ringgit, it saw lower sales volume.

The improved earnings saw it declaring a fourth interim dividend of three sen per share for FY15, to be payable on a date to be fixed.

This brought its full year’s dividend to 6.75 sen versus 4.25 sen in FY14.

Meanwhile, JCY’s full-year net profit came in at RM209.5 million, a 91% spike from RM109.9 million seen in FY14; revenue, though, improved only a marginal 4.02% to RM1.94 billion compared with RM1.87 billion in FY14.

“The improvement on profit after tax was due mainly to the higher revenue [from the US dollar exchange rate], improved operational efficiency in the reporting periods, and [an] exchange gain [that] resulted from translating financial assets and liabilities for the reporting periods,” it said.

Going forward, it said production would continue to be affected by labour costs, and the requirement for workers’ welfare under the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct.

It closed one sen or 1.12% lower at 88 sen with a market capitalisation of RM1.8 billion.