Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR(Nov 18): Lafarge Malaysia Bhd's net profit more than halved to RM54.81million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2014 against RM120.22million in the previous corresponding period.

The cement maker attributed the sharp decline in earnings to the lower revenue and higher operating cost arising from the increase in electricity tariff and removal of fuel subsidy.

Quarterly revenue shrunk 8.7% to RM664.63million from RM728.01million a year ago. Earnings per share (EPS) slipped to 6.50sen from 14.20 sen a year ago.

“This was mainly attributable to the lower revenue from cement segment principally due to the lower domestic selling prices as a result of keen competition,” Lafarge said in its announcement to Bursa Malaysia today.

Despite the poor earnings performance, Lafarge declares dividend per share of eight sen, bringing the total sum to 26 sen for the financial year so far compared with 24 sen a year ago.
        
For the nine months ended Sept 30, Lafarge’s net profit contracted 19.5% to RM206.07million from RM255.96million last year. EPS fell to 24.3 sen from 30.10 sen a year ago.

Lafarge said that the decrease was attributed to the lower sales revenue arising from lower cement volumes and lower sales from concrete segment due to the completion of a major project.

Moving forward, Lafarge said that the outlook of the construction sector is expected to remain positive in 2014 driven mainly by the continued progress of key infrastructure projects and on-going commercial and residential development.

“The group will continue to focus on product quality and providing solutions to customers whilst maintaining efficiency in the overall operations. The market remains very competitive in the context of the recently installed additional capacity,” it said.

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