Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 27, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The drop in gold prices has weighed on Poh Kong Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the fourth quarter ended July 31, 2018 (4QFY18).

The company’s net profit shed by 38% to RM8.93 million, or 2.17 sen per share, from RM14.3 million or 3.49 sen per share in the previous corresponding quarter, as fluctuations in gold prices affected its operating profits, it said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.

Its quarterly revenue, however, rose 4.7% to RM272.2 million compared with RM260 million a year ago, driven by higher demand for gold jewellery and gold investment products and additional revenue contributed from new outlets in the current quarter under review.

In a separate filing, its board of directors recommended a first and final single tier dividend of one sen per share in respect of the financial year ended July 31, 2018 (FY18), subject to shareholders’ approval.

For FY18, the group’s annual net profit declined 20.7% to RM23.4 million from RM29.5 million in FY17, despite revenue growing 14.4% to RM1 billion from RM877 million.

Moving forward, the group is optimistic of maintaining its growth and leading position in Malaysia despite more challenging and competitive conditions in the domestic jewellery market.

“Notwithstanding uncertainties in the global and regional economies, fundamentals in Malaysia remain resilient, which have enabled corporate and industry players to meet their challenges and business performance.

 Poh Kong’s share price gained one sen to close at 49.5 sen yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM203.1 million. Over the last year, the share price has declined of about 30.6%. At current level, it is trading at a trailing P/E of 8.6 times with a dividend yield of 2.02%.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share