KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 29): QL Resources Bhd's (KL:QL) net profit rose 4.6% in the second financial quarter from a year earlier, on the back of improved revenue contributions from all its business segments and lower finance costs, which helped offset increases in tax expenses.
QL made a net profit of RM128.28 million for the three months ended Sept 30, 2024 (2QFY2025), up from RM122.64 million in 2QFY2024, a bourse filing showed on Friday. Earnings per share rose to 3.52 sen from 3.36 sen. No dividend was declared.
Quarterly revenue climbed 10.8% to RM1.87 billion from RM1.69 billion. Tax expenses rose 17.7% to RM51.52 million from RM43.78 million, while finance costs decreased 12% to RM15.46 million from RM17.65 million a year ago.
QL said sales for its marine product manufacturing grew 8% to RM391.5 million in 2QFY2025, from RM363.61 million a year ago, due to higher sales volume achieved for fishmeal, surimi and surimi-based products — albeit at a lower unit price caused by a weaker US dollar, as well as a weak performance reported for fishing and aquaculture activities.
As for the integrated livestock farming segment, sales grew 14% to RM993.19 million from RM871.79 million, supported by substantially higher sales volume for feed raw materials and an increase in egg production volume contributed by a newly acquired peninsular layer farm in 3QFY2024.
QL's convenience store chain division, which runs FamilyMart stores in Malaysia, reported a 10% increase in sales to RM301.42 million from RM274.88 million, helped by an increase of 34 stores, despite a marginal decline in average store sales.
The palm oil and clean energy division's sales were marginally higher at RM186.86 million, compared with RM179.89 million a year earlier, due to higher project progress, especially for solar energy project delivery. This helped to mitigate a weaker performance of palm oil activities affected by lower fresh fruit bunch tonnage produced and processed, despite higher crude palm oil prices.
For the first six months ended Sept 30, 2024 (1HFY2025), QL's net profit increased 9.4% to RM235.71 million from RM215.45 million, as revenue expanded 6.2% to RM3.49 billion from RM3.29 billion for 1HFY2024.
QL’s management said the group is cautiously positive that its business performance will remain satisfactory in the coming quarter, with continued egg cost subsidy and ceiling price mechanisms in Malaysia.
The counter rose two sen or 0.41% to RM4.87 at Friday’s closing bell, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM17.78 billion. QL has risen 28% since the start of the year.