KUALA LUMPUR (May 25): WCT Holdings Bhd’s net profit declined 17% to RM33.21 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015, compared to RM40.10 million last year due to completion of several projects.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, WCT (fundamental: 0.6; valuation: 1.4) said the lower turnover is mainly due to completion of several projects and it expected contribution from the new projects to increase in the second half of the year.

The engineering and construction outfit’s revenue also contracted 24.7% to RM352.62 million against RM467.22 million last year.

Basic earnings per share fell to 3.09 sen against 3.67 sen last year.

The company said its engineering and construction segment recorded revenue of RM250 million compared with RM327 million a year ago and operational profit of RM27 million against RM37 million in the previous corresponding quarter. The decrease in operating profit is attributable to lower contribution from overseas division.

Meanwhile its property development and investment segments registered revenue of RM102 million against RM140 million a year ago; while operational profit came in at RM32 million versus RM31 million last year.

Moving forward, the group is "cautiously optimistic" to achieve satisfactory results for the financial ending Dec 31, 2015 with the implementation of the 11th Malaysia Plan and the roll out of mega infrastructure projects.    

(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.)