KUALA LUMPUR: SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd’s net profit plunged 49% to RM260.69 million or 4.37 sen a share for its first quarter ended April 30, 2015 (1QFY16) from RM509.42 million or 8.5 sen a share a year ago, mainly driven by lower operating profit from its energy division.

Revenue for 1QFY16 fell 7.6% to RM2.26 billion from RM2.44 billion in 1QFY15.

The group declared an interim dividend of 1.35 sen per share for FY16 ending Jan 31, payable on Aug 28, 2015.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, SapuraKencana said the energy segment’s operating profit was 70% lower than RM198 million in 1QFY15, excluding gain arising from the acquisition of subsidiaries.

The segment’s revenue for 1QFY16 also fell 43.6% compared with 1QFY15, primarily due to a combination of lower barrels of oil lifted as a result of the natural decline of oil reserves in the production-sharing contract blocks and lower average price per barrel.

Going forward, the group anticipates the challenging environment to persist in the medium term.

“The group continues to refine its strategy to ensure competitiveness and resilience in weathering the industry cycles,” it said.

In a separate filing, the group said its wholly-owned subsidiary SapuraKencana TMC Sdn Bhd yesterday made a lodgement to the Securities Commission Malaysia for the launch of a multi-currency sukuk programme of up to RM7 billion, which will be used to refinance the company’s existing financings, as well as to fund the group’s oil and gas-related business requirements.

The programme has a tenure of 30 years.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 16, 2015.