KUCHING: Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) announced a pre-tax profit (PBT) of RM231.02 million for the first nine months of 2017 (9MFY17), exceeding the preceding year’s corresponding period’s PBT of RM160.41 million by 44 per cent.
This was largely attributable to increased efficiencies and productivity within the cement division, reflecting the Group’s unrelenting focus towards its operations, and to improved sales within the Property Development Division.
The increase in the group’s PBT was despite an eight per cent decrease in its revenue of RM1.02 billion for FY17, in comparison to FY16’s revenue of RM1.10 billion.
The decline was mainly due to lower sales volumes in the construction materials and trading and cement divisions.
The construction and road maintenance division also reported lower revenue due to reduced federal road maintenance work and due to the completion of major projects in 2016.
Furthermore, the group’s profit after tax and non-controlling interests (PATNCI) also increased by 121 per cent to RM149.43 million in FY17, from RM67.66 million in PE2016.
Earnings per share stood at 13.91 sen versus 6.30 sen from the corresponding nine-month period of last year. Commenting on the results, Datuk Richard Curtis, group managing director of CMS, said:
“The first nine-months of 2017 has been an important phase in terms of meeting performance against targets, despite the challenging market and operational conditions faced by our group.
“These macro factors were generally the sluggish regional private and public sectors resulting in reduced demand for construction materials and related services.
“Despite the challenges, the group recorded significant achievements, namely, by its cement, construction and road maintenance, construction materials and trading and property development Divisions.
“Overall, the results for the first nine-months of this year are viewed positively as they provide reassurance that the group is on track towards achieving a very much-improved performance for its FY17 financial results as against FY16.”
The group also recorded a higher share of profit of RM25.85 million in PE2017 from the share of results of its joint-ventures in comparison to PE2016’s profit contribution of RM8.04 million.
The increase was mainly attributable to the excellent performances by CMS Opus Private Equity Sdn Bhd and two private equity funds.
Furthermore, CMSB recorded profit of RM12.63 million in FY17 from the share of results of its associates, a significant improvement by 131 per cent in comparison to FY16’s losses of RM40.49 million. This is largely due to the group’s 25 per cent associate, OM Materials (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd’s improved performance.
Its performance levels are expected to continue to improve as the plant is ramping up towards full production and its market sectors are observing demand growth and price improvements.