KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 13): Plastic material and resin manufacturer Luxchem Corp Bhd (KL:LUXCHEM) on Thursday announced that its fourth quarter net profit surged 60.42% year-on-year (y-o-y), largely driven by higher revenue from its trading and manufacturing segments.

Net profit for the three months ended Dec 31, 2024 (4QFY2024) was RM17.77 million — its highest quarterly earnings since 2QFY2022 — as compared to RM11.08 million a year ago, Luxchem said in a stock exchange filing.

Earnings per share rose to 1.66 sen, from 1.04 sen in 4QFY2023.

Revenue for the quarter was up by 16.12% to RM205.94 million from RM177.36 million in the same quarter a year earlier, also driven by the company’s trading and manufacturing segments.

The trading segment, comprising import, export and distribution of petrochemicals and other related products, reported a 95% y-o-y jump in profit after tax to RM9.75 million, against RM5 million a year ago, as revenue rose 8% y-o-y to RM118.74 million, from RM110.05 million.

The manufacturing segment, which involved trading unsaturated polyester resin, latex chemical dispersions, latex processing chemicals, former cleaning, powder-free coagulant, and related products, reported a 34% y-o-y increase in profit after tax to RM11.84 million, from RM8.83 million a year ago, as revenue rose 30% y-o-y to RM87.20 million, from RM67.31 million.    

The company declared a single-tier interim dividend of one sen per share, payable on March 14. This brings its to-date dividend payout for FY2024 to 1.8 sen per share, compared with 1.4 sen per share in FY2023.

The group closed its FY2024 with a 30% increase in annual net profit to RM48.20 million, from RM37.06 million in FY2023, as revenue rose 21.7% to RM795.38 million, versus RM653.53 million.

Despite the improved financial results, the group said its business outlook could be affected by several key challenges, such as foreign exchange rates, raw material price fluctuations, raw material demand and supply situations, stiff competition, ongoing global geopolitical conflict, and current global trade uncertainties.

“The group will continue to improve its own productivity and efficiency to face these external uncontrollable factors and challenges,” it said.

Luxchem’s shares closed 3.5 sen or 7.3% higher at 51.5 sen on Thursday, valuing the group at RM551 million.