KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 26): PPB Group Bhd (PPB) today announced that its third quarter for financial year ending Dec 31, 2014 (3QFY14) registered a net profit of RM324.7 million, up 13.5% from RM286.1 million in 3QFY13. Earnings per share (EPS) went up in tandem to 27.4 sen from 24.13 sen a year earlier.

In its quarterly report to Bursa Malaysia today, PPB, in which media-shy billionaire Tan Sri Robert Kuok Hock Nien owns over 50% via Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd, said the improvement was mainly due to the better performance of its flour, feed milling, and grains trading segment, which is also the main driver of the group's revenue.

PPB's quarterly revenue improved 11.7% from RM830.4 million in 3QFY13 to RM927.97 million in 3QFY14, of which 63.34% (RM587.78 million) was from the aforesaid business segment.

Its nine-month period (9MFY14) net profit however, shrunk 9.48% to RM635.35 million from RM701.88 million in the same period last year, even though revenue rose 14.72% to RM2.77 billion from RM2.41 billion.

The group said the weaker 9MFY14 profit was mainly due to lower profit contribution from its associate, Singapore-listed Wilmar International Ltd (Wilmar), which is also controlled by the Kuok family.

"Wilmar contributed RM443 million in 9MFY14 against RM546 million in 9MFY13, due to the continued margin contractions in palm and laurics as well as the negative soybean crushing margins in 1QFY14," PPB said.

The group's EPS thus dropped accordingly to 53.59 sen in 9MFY14 from 59.21 sen last year.

PPB closed unchanged at RM15.50 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM18.38 billion.