KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6): VS Industry Bhd has allocated a capital expenditure (capex) of RM80 million for its financial year 2023 (FY2023), the group said in a statement on Friday (Jan 6) released after its 40th annual general meeting.

This is lower than the RM150 million it had set aside last year, according to reports.

Managing director Datuk Gan Sem Yam said the group will remain steadfast and focused on growing its business, despite elevated market uncertainties.

“Meanwhile, for our local operations, the order flow from customers continues to be satisfactory,” said Gan in the statement. “Over in Indonesia, we anticipate better contribution this year, as a customer is increasing its orders.”

“On balance, we are cautiously optimistic on VS’s outlook and opine the financial performance of the group in FY2023 to be satisfactory,” he added.

According to VS Industry, in FY2022, the group’s total dividend per share amounted to two sen, representing a 45.8% payout, based on FY2022’s earnings per share of 4.37 sen. The group has a dividend policy of 40% payout of net profit.

This comes after the electronic manufacturing services provider reported a 54% higher net profit of RM60.71 million in its first quarter ended Oct 31, 2022 (1QFY2023), from RM39.39 million a year earlier (1QFY2022), while its revenue rose 33.7% to RM1.29 billion from RM967.99 million.

The group has also declared an interim dividend of 0.5 sen to be paid on March 3, 2023.

At the time of writing on Friday, VS Industry’s share price had decreased to 0.5 sen or 0.56% at 90 sen. Its market capitalisation stood at RM3.44 billion.