KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 5): MISC Bhd's net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2015 (4QFY15) fell 21% year-on-year to RM757.72 million or 16.9 sen per share, from RM959.03 million or 21.5 sen per share a year ago, partially due to net loss on disposal of ships, property, plant and equipment amounting to RM74.99 million.

According to its financial statement, it recorded a RM654.55 million disposal gain in 4QFY14. Its share of profit of joint ventures also tumbled 47% to RM169.07 million from RM319.91 million a year ago.

Its operating profit, however, was 131.1% higher at RM1.08 billion versus RM468.9 million in 4QFY14.

Revenue for the quarter came in 44.54% higher at RM3.31 billion versus RM2.29 billion a year ago as all its business segments performed better during the quarter under review.

Despite lower quarterly earnings, MISC, a 62.7%-owned subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), declared a total dividend of 22.5 sen.

This comprises a second interim dividend of 12.5 sen and a final dividend of 10 sen, amounting to RM1 billion, payable on March 9 and May 19 respectively.

This brings its full-year dividend to 30 sen compared with 10 sen in FY14.

For FY15, MISC's net profit jumped 12.27% to RM2.47 billion or 55.3 sen per share from RM2.2 billion or 49.4 sen per share, while revenue gained 17.3% to RM10.91 billion from RM9.3 billion in FY14.

Moving forward, the group expects its petroleum shipping segment to continue enjoying the benefits of the market strength that was seen last year, barring any material cutback in global oil production.

"The steady performance of the LNG (liquefied natural gas) shipping and offshore business segments in 2015 will continue into the next financial year on the back of the portfolio of long-term contracts both business segments have in place," it added.

Nevertheless, the group said the outlook of the upstream oil and gas industry is projected to remain poor with the prolonged weakness in oil price.

"The cutback in exploration and production activities will continue to weigh heavily on the offshore construction activities for the heavy engineering segment," it explained.

On a positive note, the segment's marine repair business is expected to perform steadily and to a limited extent, cushion the weak performance of offshore construction business, it added.

Operationally, MISC expects to sustain its financial performance in 2015 into the current financial year.

At the midday break, shares in MISC fell four sen or 0.47% to RM8.45, giving it a market capitalisation of RM37.72 billion.