KUALA LUMPUR: YTL Corp Bhd saw a 40% decline in net profit to RM233.17 million, or 2.24 sen a share, for its third quarter ended March 31, 2015 (3QFY15), from RM389.82 million, or 3.76 sen a share, a year ago.

This came on the back of lower revenue of RM4 billion, which fell 12% from RM4.55 billion last year.

For the cumulative nine-month period (9MFY15), the group’s net profit stood at RM770.81 million or 7.43 sen a share — a 35% fall from the RM1.2 billion or 11.59 sen a share achieved in 9MFY14. Revenue for 9MFY15 was also lower at RM12.7 million — a 13.3% decrease from RM14.66 million a year ago.

Meanwhile, the conglomerate’s various business divisions posted a mixed bag of results.Its utilities division saw pre-tax profit (PBT) for 3QFY15 grow 12% to RM372.4 million from RM332.4 million a year ago, 

despite revenue falling by 19.6% in 3QFY15 to RM2.64 billion from RM3.28 billion.

YTL Corp (fundamental: 1.2; valuation: 1.4) attributed the lower revenue to lower units of electricity sold, coupled with a lower price from retail contracts under the multi-utilities business division.This was marginally offset by profit from the water and sewerage division, due to an increase in price as allowed by the regulator, which resulted in a higher PBT during the quarter.

The utilities segment contributed 54.5% and 70.5% of the group’s PBT and revenue respectively.

Its unit YTL Power International Bhd announced that its net profit was down 12.8% to RM222.7 million for the quarter under review, from RM255.5 million a year ago. Earnings per share shrunk to 3.17 sen, from 4.07 sen. Revenue came in lower at RM2.68 billion against RM3.3 billion a year ago.

“Higher interest income, lower development cost incurred, and unrealised foreign exchange (forex) gain recorded by YTL Power was offset by the unrealised forex loss incurred by YTL Corp Finance (Labuan) Ltd,” it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.

YTL Corp’s construction division, meanwhile, saw its revenue rise 23.5% to RM39.6 million, due to higher revenue recognition of construction contracts by Syarikat Pembenaan Yeoh Tiong Lay Sdn Bhd. However, PBT for the segment fell by almost 84% to RM1.8 million in 3QFY15 on higher operating costs.

Its information technology and e-commerce related business saw revenue increase 48% to RM2.1 million from RM1.4 million in 3QFY15, while PBT stayed flat. It said the increase in revenue and PBTwere mainly due to higher digital media advertising revenue and higher interest income earned on cash deposits.

For the cement manufacturing and trading segment, improved sales in all divisions resulted in better revenue and profit.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 22, 2015.