KUALA LUMPUR: SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd’s net profit leapt 42% to RM348.4 million in the third quarter ended Oct 31, 2014 (3QFY15) from RM245.6 million a year ago, mainly due to a higher contribution from its drilling and energy services (DES) segment.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the group said its DES segment recorded higher profit and revenue due to the inclusion of drilling unit SapuraKencana Energy Inc Group’s (SKEI) business.

Its 3QFY15 revenue nudged up 1.2% to RM2.41 billion from RM2.38 billion a year ago.

The SKEI business is a group of subsidiaries involved in upstream oil and gas activities, which was acquired by the group on Feb 11, 2014.

The group declared a second interim dividend of two sen per share for FY15 ending Jan 31, payable on Feb 13, 2015.

For the nine-month period (9MFY15), net profit soared 74% to RM1.3 billion from RM749.7 million, while revenue grew 16.2% to RM7.55 billion from RM6.49 billion in 9MFY14.

SapuraKencana said the higher profit and revenue were, again, primarily due to the inclusion of the SKEI business.

It made a gain of RM177.8 million from the SKEI acquisition, which further boosted its profit.

SapuraKencanca acknowledged that the global oil and gas industry is facing challenging times due to the weak demand for crude oil.

But the group is confident of delivering a healthy financial performance for the current financial year on the back of recurring income from long-term contracts and a strong balance sheet.

In a separate filing, SapuraKencana revealed that its vice-chairman Tan Sri Mokhzani Mahathir  (pic) had purchased an additional two million shares to increase his indirect stake to 10.18% or 610 million shares in the group. The acquisition was transacted on Monday and yesterday — one million shares each — via his private investment vehicle Kencana Capital Sdn Bhd.

Comparatively, Mokhzani holds a direct 0.16% stake, or 9.49 million shares, in SapuraKencana.

The counter closed down seven sen or 2.8% to RM2.45 yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM14.44 billion.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 10, 2014.