KUALA LUMPUR (May 15): Pintaras Jaya Bhd saw its net profit rise 48.8% to RM13.78 million, or 8.60 sen per share, for the third quarter ended March 31 (3QFY15) against RM9.26 million or 5.8 sen a year ago.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Pintaras Jaya (fundamental: 3; valuation: 1.7) explained that the substantial rise on the company’s earnings was mainly due to non cash employee benefits cost under employee stock option scheme (ESOS) of RM4 million that incurred in the previous corresponding period.

Excluding the ESOS costs in the previous corresponding quarter, Pintara's earnings growth would be flat.  

Revenue for 3QFY15 also increased 17.28% to RM57.34 million, outperforming last year’s corresponding quarter revenue of RM48.89 million.

It said that its construction division achieved a higher revenue of RM47.9 million in 3QFY15 (RM40.1 million in 3QFY14) but earnings remain at RM15.3 million. This is due to lower progress profits recognised from on-going projects which are in the completion stages of implementation and higher depreciation charge.

For its manufacturing division, sales for the 3QFY15 had increased by 7% to RM9.4 million compared with RM8.8 million in 3QFY14, but earnings remained at RM1.6 million due to declining margins as the result of increased operating expenditure.

For the nine months, the company posted a profit of RM40.47 million against RM33.53 million a year ago, while revenue also increased to RM195.64 million, an increase by 39.6% from RM140.16 million.       

Pintaras Jaya declared an interim single-tier dividend of 7 sen per share, payable on June 30.

Moving forward, Pintaras Jaya expected the construction business to perform satisfactorily for the remaining fourth quarter based on its existing outstanding order book.

“The balance of our order book is at the low end and many projects are at the end stage of completion. Our current capacity allows us to be more aggressive in replenishing our order book in the coming months,” it said.

Pintaras Jaya remains positive over the construction industry as a whole for the coming year although the number of property projects appears to have dropped as reflected in its reduced tender book total.

“We are also hopeful that the 11th Malaysia Plan, which is expected to be announced soon, will provide added growth to the construction industry,” it added.

Pintaras Jaya’s share price gained three sen or 0.74% at RM4.08, giving it a market capitalisation of RM658.86 million.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)