KUALA LUMPUR (May 18): Here is a brief recap of some corporate announcements that made the news on Thursday (May 18), involving Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd, Pharmaniaga Bhd, Supermax Corp Bhd, CJ Century Logistics Holdings Bhd, Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Pos Malaysia Bhd, Kawan Food Bhd, Berjaya Food Bhd, TIME dotCom Bhd, Gas Malaysia Bhd, Magnum Bhd, Dialog Group Bhd, ITMAX System Bhd, Pesona Metro Bhd and Malayan Flour Mills Bhd.

Loss-making Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd (BHIC) has bagged two contracts with a combined value of RM140.06 million from the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), according to its filings. One is worth RM99.8 million and was secured by its wholly-owned BHIC Submarine Engineering Services Sdn Bhd (BSES) to provide interim in-support services to the Royal Malaysian Navy's (RMN) Prime Minister's Class submarines. The contract period is 11 months, from March 15 this year to Feb 14, 2024. The second is an extension of the RMN submarine facilities upkeep contract worth RM40.26 million. The contract is for 12 months, from Jan 1 till the end of December this year.

Pharmaniaga Bhd’s net profit dropped to RM2.65 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (1QFY2023), barely 10% of the RM27.73 million it made a year earlier. The latest figures were also a far cry from its pre-pandemic levels. Pharmaniaga posted a net profit of RM19.6 million in 1QFY2019 on revenue of RM786.1 million. The public hospitals’ generic drug supplier attributed the big earnings contraction to lower customer demand in both its concession and Indonesia operations. On top of that, it incurred higher financial costs as a result of the increase in the Overnight Policy Rate. Quarterly revenue fell 8.5% to RM880.45 million from RM962.17 million in 1QFY2022. The group’s balance sheet, as at March 31, shows that its short-term borrowings, which would be due within six months, ballooned to RM1.03 billion from RM968.27 million as at Dec 31, 2022, while long-term borrowings increased to RM222.78 million from RM190.63 million.

Supermax Corp Bhd remained in the red for the second consecutive quarter, albeit with a lower net loss of RM39.92 million for its third quarter ended March 31, 2023 (3QFY2023), against RM108 million in the preceding quarter (2QFY2023). Besides the slower demand and the Withhold Release Order imposed by the US Customs and Border Protection, Supermax’s net loss was partly caused by asset impairment of RM23 million arising from the decommissioning of three older plants, two of which are permanent and the third plant earmarked for rebuilding. On a year-on-year comparison, the glove maker posted a net profit of RM13.01 million a year ago. Revenue was nearly flat at RM175.74 million in 3QFY2023 compared with RM174.78 million in 2QFY2023. However, it was a sharp 57% fall compared with RM407.8 million the year before, due to lower average selling price and higher costs. Its loss per share was 1.51 sen against 0.49 sen earnings per share previously. Nevertheless, the glove maker declared an interim dividend of 3.5 sen per share payable on July 18.

Total logistics provider CJ Century Logistics Holdings Bhd saw its net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2023 (1QFY2023) more than halved from the previous year's corresponding quarter’s earnings to RM3.75 million, mainly due to freight rates normalisation and less business volume. The lower earnings were on the back of weaker performance across its total logistics services segment, with almost all of the businesses recording double digit declines on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis during the quarter. CJ Century’s revenue during the quarter of RM219.6 million was 9.6% lower compared with the revenue in 1QFY2022.

Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd (MPI) sank into the red, reporting a net loss of RM17.83 million, or 8.97 sen loss per share, for the third quarter ended March 31, 2023 (3QFY2023) compared to a net profit of RM81.36 million or 40.98 sen per share a year earlier, as weak electronics demand spread from consumers to commercial. This is MPI's first quarterly loss since 2QFY2013, when the company posted a RM1.79 million net loss at the time. Nonetheless, it declared a second interim single tier dividend of 25 sen per share — the same amount it announced a year ago — bringing its year-to-date dividend per share to 35 sen. The dividend, with an ex-date of June 1, will be paid on June 21. The company’s quarterly revenue declined 22.8% to RM471.86 million from RM611.56 million in 3QFY2022. For the cumulative nine months ended March 31 (9MFY2023), MPI’s net profit tumbled 78.6% to RM53.2 million from RM248.37 million. Revenue was RM1.56 billion, 13.4% lower than the RM1.8 billion it registered the prior year.

Pos Malaysia Bhd narrowed its net loss to RM27.66 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (1QFY2023), a loss per share of 3.53 sen; from a net loss of RM30.37 million a year ago, or 3.88 sen per share. Pos Malaysia attributed its improved performance to market leading service offerings, better customer mix and yield, and effective cost management. It should be noted that this is Pos Malaysia’s 19th consecutive loss-making quarter. Quarterly revenue inched down 0.43% to RM482.27 million, from RM484.35 million.

Kawan Food Bhd's net profit shrank 8.37% in the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (1QFY2023) to RM7.88 million, from RM8.6 million the same quarter a year earlier (1QFY2022), due to higher expenses, including selling and distribution, and income tax. The company’s earnings per share decreased to 2.17 sen versus 2.4 sen, according to its filing. Revenue for 1QFY2023 was 15.17% higher at RM79.1 million from RM68.68 million previously, due to rising demand for its products from both the local as well as European and Asian markets.

Berjaya Food Bhd (BFood)’s net profit dropped 49.5% in the third quarter ended March 31, 2023 (3QFY2023) to RM15.94 million from RM31.58 million in 3QFY2022, despite higher revenue, no thanks to margin compression arising from inflationary pressures that pushed operating costs higher. Revenue increased 8.27% to RM265.85 million compared to revenue of RM246 million in the previous year’s corresponding quarter, which is largely attributed to the opening of additional Starbucks cafes in the current quarter under review, the company’s stock exchange filing showed. Earnings per share retreated to 0.91 sen from 1.74 sen previously. The group declared a third interim dividend of 0.5 sen per share — more than the 0.3 sen it paid in the corresponding quarter last year — to be paid on June 23. This raised its year-to-date dividend to three sen, as opposed to 0.7 sen previously.

TIME dotCom Bhd’s net profit went up 26.32% to RM114.51 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (1QFY2023), from RM90.65 million in the same quarter a year earlier (1QFY2022), amid higher revenue contributions. The telecommunications company saw its earnings per share rise to 6.23 sen from 4.97 sen. The improved net profit was also due to higher share of profits from associates, foreign exchange net gains, lower donation, as well as lower property, plant and equipment written off. Quarterly revenue increased 6.31% to RM368.42 million from RM346.54 million, due to higher contributions from its data and data centre segments.

Gas Malaysia Bhd’s net profit grew 4.2% for its first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (1QFY2023) to RM95.1 million from RM91.32 million a year ago, although its quarterly revenue climbed to a record high. The natural gas distribution firm’s revenue soared 36.75% in 1QFY2023 to RM2.44 billion versus RM1.78 billion a year ago. It attributed the strong revenue growth to higher average natural gas selling price in tandem with global market price. However, it noted that there was a lower volume of natural gas sold in the quarter under review. This explains the single-digit profit growth. Besides higher revenue, Gas Malaysia’s recorded higher finance income of RM4.95 million from RM1.55 million in the corresponding period last year.

Magnum Bhd's net profit dipped 5.28% to RM15.78 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (1QFY2023) from RM16.66 million a year earlier, despite stronger revenue, as its gaming segment registered higher prize payouts. The lower net profit was partly mitigated by lower pre-tax loss of RM6.34 million recorded by its investment holdings and others segment, compared to a pre-tax loss of RM8.23 million a year ago, its bourse filing showed. Revenue came in at RM546 million, up 8.97% from RM501.04 million a year before, lifted by higher gaming sales.  

Dialog Group Bhd posted a RM130.81 million net profit for the third quarter ended March 31, 2023 (3QFY2023), down 1.7% from RM133.07 million a year ago, due to higher project and operation costs. As a result, earnings per share slipped to 2.32 sen from 2.36 sen in 3QFY2022. Quarterly revenue, meanwhile, grew 35.28% to RM802.79 million from RM593.43 million, contributed by higher revenue from offshore project implementation activities at the Bayan field in Sarawak. This was also driven by higher sales of specialist products and services in various countries, together with increased engineering, construction and maintenance activities in Singapore, and fabrication activities in New Zealand, according to Dialog’s filing.

Newly listed ITMAX System Bhd's net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 jumped 127.4% to RM15.19 million from RM6.68 million a year earlier on the back of improvements in both the video surveillance and analytics services segment, and the supply, installation, and maintenance service segment. In a bourse filing, the company said revenue for the quarter surged to RM34.68 million from RM19.26 million previously. Earnings per share was 1.48 sen. The company did not declare any dividend for the quarter.

Pesona Metro Bhd has bagged a construction contract worth RM242.2 million for the main building works of a mixed development project in Kuala Lumpur. Its wholly-owned subsidiary Pesona Metro Sdn Bhd accepted the letter of award from KL Wellness City (H) Sdn Bhd, the property developer of the project. The 27-month project will start from June 1, 2023 and to be completed by Sept 30, 2025.

Malayan Flour Mills Bhd net profit shrank 48.6% to RM10.44 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (1QFY23), from RM20.32 million a year ago due to higher input costs from rising commodity prices paired with a weak ringgit. The drop in net profit occurred despite a 30% increase in MFM’s revenue of RM826.7 million in 1QFY23, from RM634.9 million posted the corresponding quarter a year earlier, as the group saw higher sales in the flour and grain trading segment.