KUALA LUMPUR: LPI Capital Bhd’s fourth quarter (4QFY14) net profit soared 123% from a year ago to RM117.1 million or 53 sen a share, boosted by the realisation of investment gains in equities.

4QFY14 revenue rose 1.5% to RM299.2 million, in line with the marginal growth in its core general insurance business, which recorded a revenue growth of 1.4% to RM298.5 million.

For the full-year period, LPI’s net profit surged 40.5% to RM283.02 million, while revenue rose 4.5% to RM1.17 billion from RM1.12 billion previously, its filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday showed.

LPI said the higher FY14 profit was largely from its investment holding segment, which recorded a higher pre-tax profit of RM85.5 million, mainly due to the realised gain on disposal of investment in quoted equities.

LPI (fundamental: 1.7; valuation: 0.35) also declared a second interim single-tier dividend of 55 sen per share for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014. This translates to a full year distribution of 75 sen per share.

Separately, LPI announced a proposed bonus issue on a one-for-two basis that involves the issuance of some 110.66 million new ordinary shares to reward its shareholder for their “loyalty” and “continuous support”, and to increase LPI’s capital base to reflect its current scale of operations and assets.

Shares of LPI ended up 10 sen or 0.5% at RM18.50, giving it a market capitalisation of RM4.09 billion.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 29, 2015.