KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 7): Westports Holdings Bhd's net profit slid 13.8% to RM125.44 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 (4QFY19) from RM145.54 million a year earlier, due to an asset write-off arising from a vessel incident involving its wholly-owned subsidiary Westports Malaysia Sdn Bhd (WMSB).

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia today, port operator Westports said a berthing container vessel made contact with WMSB's two ship-to-shore cranes on Nov 8, 2019. As a safety measure, WMSB has partially closed the berths to assess the damages.

Westports' 4QFY19 profit before tax fell 18% year-on-year to RM158 million due to the asset write-off arising from the vessel incident. The group's profit after tax declined 14% to RM125 million due to the same reason.

The group's 4QFY19 revenue increased to RM452.82 million from RM418.02 million a year ago, mainly attributed to growth in container volume and the implementation of the container tariff hike, effective March 1, 2019.

Westports announced a 4QFY19 dividend of 6.26 sen per share, which brings full-year dividends to 13 sen a share.

For the full year, Westports' net profit rose to RM590.9 million from RM533.47 million a year earlier while revenue climbed to RM1.78 billion from RM1.61 billion.

"Westports handled a record throughput of 10.86 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of containers in 2019. The increased volume of 14% over the previous year has been contributed by transhipment containers, which improved to 7.23 million TEUs, while gateway volume increased to 3.63 million TEUs.

"On a quarterly basis, Westports also achieved another consecutive record-breaking container throughput level in the 4QFY19 by handling 2.82 million TEUs. Transhipment containers were at 1.84 million TEUs whereas gateway boxes, which support domestic economic activities, improved to 980,000 TEUs.

"The company initially expected a small single-digit container throughput growth. However, there is less visibility on the overall volume outlook due to the coronavirus outbreak," Westports said.

Westports' securities trade was halted between 2:30pm and 3:30pm today in conjunction with the company's announcements. At 3:39pm, Westports' share price fell seven sen or 1.77% to RM3.89, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM13.37 billion.