KUALA LUMPUR: Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd’s (CMSB) net profit rose to RM249.02 million in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 (FY17), from RM217.31 million a year earlier.
Revenue for the period increased to RM1.61 billion from RM1.55 billion recorded previously while earnings per share rose to 20.03 sen versus 15.75 sen.
“The increase in revenue was contributed by the construction, road maintenance and the property development divisions,” the group said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today.
For the fourth quarter, net profit reduced to RM77.23 million from RM115.39 million, year-on-year, but revenue improved to RM588.19 million from RM449.54 million chalked up in the corresponding quarter.
Weaker earnings for the quarter was attributed to higher production cost of cement, provision for soil erosion remedial works and lower share of results of its joint ventures, said CMSB.
Group Chief Executive Officer (Corporate) Datuk Isaac Lugun said there was an upswing in the group’s financial performance for FY17 despite the challenging market and operational conditions.
“During the year, the demand for construction materials and related services was sluggish but this was offset by the robust performance of our property development division, the strong contribution from our joint ventures and the turnaround of our associate, OM Materials (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd,” he said in a separate statement.
The group expected demand for construction materials and related services to remain sluggish in 2018, but would see some upsides once the Pan Borneo Highway project gathered momentum, raising demand for quarry products and cement-based materials.
“We are hopeful that the spending on recent allocations made by the federal and state governments for infrastructure and telco-infrastructure will start soon and boost construction activity in the state.
“We also expect our strategic investments via our associates to continue contributing positively to the group’s performance,” added Isaac.