KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 28): Magnum Bhd saw its net profit grow 82.9% to RM37.54 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2022 (4QFY22), up from RM20.52 million a year ago, thanks to higher gaming sales.

As a result, Magnum’s full-year earnings in FY22 shot up by 547 times to RM100.67 million compared with RM184,000 a year earlier.

Its annual profit of RM100.67 million has also surpassed FY20’s net profit of RM21.3 million and close to FY18’s net profit of RM104.7 million, but still a distance from FY19’s net profit of RM238.7 million.  

The surge in its annual and quarterly net profit were on the back of improved revenues, as FY22 revenue gained 61.3% to RM2.03 billion from RM1.26 billion, while 4QFY22 revenue increased 11.6% to RM538.89 million from RM483.01 million.

“The higher gaming sales was mainly due to the higher number of draws conducted in the current financial year (2022: 179 draws versus 2021: 126 draws), while 52 draws were cancelled in 2021,” Magnum said.

The group said investment holdings and other divisions also recorded pre-tax profit of RM11.4 million in 4QFY22 compared with RM5.4 million pre-tax loss in 4QFY21.

“This was mainly due to fair value gain on investment recognised in the current quarter as opposed to fair value loss on investments in last year's corresponding period,” Magnum said.

For full-FY22, the investment holdings and others division recorded a pre-tax profit of about RM200,000 compared to last year's pre-tax loss of RM10.4 million due to lower fair value loss on investments, it said.

Earnings per share (EPS) for 4QFY22 expanded to 2.6 sen from 1.43 sen previously, and EPS for FY22 expanded to seven sen from 0.01 sen.

Magnum declared a fourth interim dividend of 1.5 sen per share (4QFY21: 1.5 sen), to be paid on March 31, bringing the total dividend declared for FY22 to five sen per share (FY21: 1.5 sen).

“After extensive efforts and investments made in the past two to three years transforming the group into a more resilient and sustainable entity, the road to a full recovery now appears to be on track in FY23 and onwards,” Magnum said in its prospects.

Magnum’s shares closed one sen lower at RM1.20 on Tuesday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM1.73 billion. The counter has fallen 35.8% in the past one year.