KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 27): Inari Amertron Bhd’s (KL:INARI) net profit for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2024 (4QFY2024) fell 17.54% to RM54.68 million from RM66.31 million a year earlier amid unfavourable forex movements, higher operating costs and early staging of new products.

Earnings per share for the quarter decreased to 1.45 sen from 1.78 sen in the previous year. The weaker profit was despite revenue increasing by 11.5% to RM333.11 million from RM298.75 million, driven by higher loading volumes in the radio frequency (RF) and optoelectronics segments.

The outsourced semiconductor assembly and test player declared a fourth interim single tier dividend of 1.4 sen per share, to be paid on Oct 10. This brings the full-year dividend to 7.7 sen per share, lower than the 8.2 sen per share paid for FY2023.

For FY2024, the group’s net profit decreased by 7.21% to RM300.19 million from RM323.54 million despite revenue rising 9.21% to RM1.48 billion from RM1.35 billion.

On prospects, Inari said its current business is well positioned to benefit from the anticipated introduction of artificial intelligence (AI)-capable smartphones and the growth of high bandwidth optoelectronic devices in networks and data centers serving the AI market.

“Despite the rapid correction (fall) of the USD in recent weeks, the group remains cautiously optimistic about FY2025. We also anticipate that advanced packaging, a key focus of the NSS (National Semiconductor Strategy), will become an enabler beyond FY2025 even as we continue to focus on its development, improve our production capacity and utilisation, strengthen our operational efficiencies to grow revenue consistent with or better than industry forecasts in FY2025,” it added.

At Tuesday’s closing bell, shares of Inari were unchanged at RM3.37, valuing it at RM12.75 billion.