This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 7, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Semiconductor player Unisem (M) Bhd saw net profit more than halve to RM14.45 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2019 (2QFY19) from RM31.14 million a year ago, on lower sales volume.

Net profit was further impacted by lower gain on the foreign exchange, it said in a bourse filing yesterday.

This resulted in lower earnings per share of two sen for 2QFY19 compared with 2.5 sen for 2QFY18. Revenue for the quarter came in 9.1% lower at RM311.93 million from RM343.2 million in 2QFY18.

Nevertheless, Unisem declared an interim dividend of two sen per share for FY19, payable on Sept 6.

The weak quarterly performance dragged down the group’s net profit for the cumulative first six months of FY19 (1HFY19) by 44.9% to RM20.51 million from RM37.2 million a year ago, while revenue fell 7.5% to RM615.06 million compared with RM664.75 million in 1HFY18.