KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): Petronas Dagangan Bhd's fourth quarter net profit plunged 83% to RM46.68 million, from RM278.58 million a year earlier, due to a significant decline in petroleum product prices.

Earnings per share for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2018 tumbled to 4.7 sen from 28 sen in the previous year's fourth quarter.

Quarterly revenue rose 10% to RM7.90 billion, from RM7.16 billion a year ago, in line with higher sales volume and an increase in average selling prices, PetDag said in a stock exchange filing.

The board declared a final interim dividend of 25 sen per share, bringing total payout for the year to 70 sen as against 97 sen previously. The payment date is March 28.

"The fourth quarter was challenging as crude oil and petroleum product prices began to decline sharply, affecting PetDag's overall profitability," PetDag's managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Syed Zainal Abidin said in a statement.

"We managed to minimise the impact by pushing for sales volume growth while focusing on our inventory management, supply and distribution efficiency as well as operating expenditure optimisation," he said.

For the full year, PetDag's net profit fell 45% to RM849.85 million, from RM1.54 billion in the previous year, while revenue rose 10% to RM30.07 billion from RM27.42 billion.

For the full-year period, PetDag said retail business recorded a 0.5% increase in sales volume, backed by impactful marketing campaigns and enhanced customer experience, while gross profit decreased by 2.1% mainly due to a decline in petroleum product prices in the fourth quarter.

The group said its liquefied petroleum gas business registered a 1.2% increase in sales volume, but the gross profit fell 23.3% due to a higher product cost.

The lubricant business increased its sales volume by 0.3% while gross profit declined 2.0%.

"Moving forward, we are cautious of the challenging landscape ahead given the continued volatility of oil price and introduction of weekly fuel prices," said Syed Zainal.

"We will focus on strengthening our network and dealer management, leveraging on our recently launched superior product, namely Petronas Primax 95 with Pro-Drive, ramping up our digitalisation and marketing efforts as well as enhancing our services to consistently deliver a seamless and frictionless experience for our customers," he added.

PetDag's share price dropped RM1.60 or 5.6% today to RM26.80, for a market value of RM26.63 billion.