Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (June 24): United Malacca Bhd’s net profit fell 39% on-year to RM9.9 million in the fourth quarter ended April 30, 2015 (4QFY15) from RM16.4 million, as the group’s performance was hit by lower average prices of crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel.

Its investment profit of RM2.52 million was also 8% lower than RM2.75 million in the corresponding quarter of the preceding year which included a gain on disposal of available-for-sale investments of RM457,000, its filing to Bursa Malaysia today showed.

Revenue for 4QFY15 also fell 24% to RM48.1 million from RM63.5 million a year ago.

The weaker earnings notwithstanding, United Malacca (fundamental: 1.95; valuation: 2.0) declared a second interim dividend of 8 sen per share for FY15, payable on Aug 21, 2015. The dividend ex-date is July 31. This brings its total dividend declared for FY15 to 16 sen per share compared with 26 sen per share in FY14.

Meanwhile, its full FY15 net profit was down 33% to RM47.2 million from RM70.2 million in FY14, also primarily due to weaker CPO and palm kernel prices.

Additionally, it had a high base in FY14 due to a RM5.68 million gain on disposal of an associate, Niro Ceramic (M) Sdn Bhd.

The plantation company’s FY15 revenue was down 12.8% to RM213.2 million from RM244.4 million in FY14.

“Excluding this gain, the pretax profit for the current financial year was 25% lower than that in the preceding year mainly due to lower average price of CPO by 9% despite higher FFB (fresh fruit bunch) production by 2%,” the company said in its filing.

The company’s investment holdings for the year also saw a 45% lower profit due to this gain on disposal.

“Excluding this gain, the investment profit in the current financial year would be 10% lower mainly due to lower fair value gains on held-for-trading investments of RM377,000 (compared with RM1.50 million in the preceding year) and loss on disposal of available-for-sale investments of RM460,000,” it added.

Its stock closed up 4 sen or 0.65% today at RM6.15, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.28 million.

(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.)

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