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

KUALA LUMPUR: Malakoff Corp Bhd’s net profit jumped 44.3% to RM156.02 million or 3.12 sen per share for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (3QFY15) from RM108.13 million or 3.02 sen per share a year ago, due to lower losses recorded by its associate Kapar Energy Ventures Sdn Bhd and lower finance costs following the redemption of its sukuk from its initial public offering (IPO) proceeds.

However, revenue for 3QFY15 fell 9.2% to RM1.28 billion from RM1.41 billion in 3QFY14 due to lower capacity factor registered by its gas- and coal-fired power plants and the scheduled outages taken by certain plants as part of its maintenance requirement.

In view of the better earnings, the independent water- and power-producing company recommended an interim dividend of two sen, totalling RM100 million, for FY15 ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15), payable on Dec 28.

For the nine-month period (9MFY15), Malakoff’s net profit gained 51.7% to RM346.21 million or 7.91 sen per share from RM228.86 million or 6.39 sen per share in 9MFY14.

This is despite revenue sliding 4.4% to RM3.93 billion from RM4.11 billion a year earlier.

Going forward, Malakoff expects its performance for FY15 to be better than FY14.

This is due to the Tanjung Bin power plant, which is expected to perform significantly better as all of its three units are now available at full capacity and the gas-fired power plants are expected to continue to perform well, it said.

Aside from that, the group will realise full-year contribution from the Port Dickson power plant pursuant to its acquisition in April 2014, which is set to enhance its profitability.

“The group’s finance costs will [also] be lower with the redemption of the sukuk from the IPO proceeds,” it added.

Malakoff shares fell two sen or 1.22% to close at RM1.62 yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM8.15 billion.