KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 26): Significantly higher tax expenses sent KNM Group Bhd's net profit down 86% to RM2.4 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (3QFY15) from RM16.4 million in the same period last year.

Tax expenses came in 80% higher in 3QFY15 at RM26.6 million, compared to RM14.7 million in 3QFY14, its filing to Bursa Malaysia today show.

Revenue, however, was up 6.4% at RM458.2 million from RM430.7 million a year ago.

For the cumulative nine-month period (9MFY15), the process equipment manufacturer's net profit was up 4.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) at RM43.5 million from RM41.7 million in 9MFY14, largely due to a gain from the disposal of certain operating profits and improved operating cost.

Its 9MFY15 revenue, however, fell 16.3% y-o-y to RM1.2 billion from RM1.4 billion a year ago, because its existing jobs are nearing completion, while new orders are still at early stages.

Nevertheless, the board is optimistic about the group's financial performance for the remainder of the financial year.

"The Asia and Oceanic segment will continue to improve its order book from the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) project, while the European and Americas segments are expected to continue being profitable," it said.

KNM was the second actively-traded counter on the bourse today, with 96.53 million shares traded. It rose 2.5 sen or 4.9% to close at 53.5 sen, valuing it at RM1.09 billion.

(Notes: 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.)