KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) posted a RM501 million net profit in the third quarter ended September 30, 2018 on the back of RM13.08 billion revenue.
The group reported lower operating profit of RM1.47 billion in the current quarter compared to RM2.01 billion in the preceding quarter, a decrease of RM539.9 million, mainly due to higher operating expenses (Opex).
Its Opex stood at RM32.24 billion, TNB said in a statement.
TNB said profit attributable to its owners decreased from RM1.24 billion recorded in the preceding quarter to RM501.0 million in the current quarter.
The decrease of RM736.3 million or 59.5 per cent was mainly due to higher operating expenses and loss in share of associates in the current quarter.
There was no dividend recommended or paid during the quarter.
TNB’s net profit for the nine-month period stood at RM3.86 billion compared to RM5.18 billion recorded a year ago. Revenue was RM37.85 billion.
TNB said in light of the global headwinds and the International Monetary Fund’s cut in global economic growth rate, Malaysia had revised downwards the projected gross domestic product growth rate from the previously announced five to 5.5 per cent to 4.8 per cent this year.
“Despite the aforementioned scenarios, the performance of the group is expected to remain positive for the year ending December 31, 2018,” it added.
TNB president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Ir. Azman Mohd said for financial year 2018, the group had recorded outstanding achievement in Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) of 8.1, which was in the top quartile in the industry.
“We understand that moving forward, increasing the score will require us to consistently improve our services to the customers. Furthermore, TNB was also recently ranked fourth in the world by the World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 report, in ease of getting electricity.
“This recognition measures the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection, reliability of supply and transparency of tariffs index,” he said.
Azman said the group had also recorded superior technical performances, with Transmission System Minutes of 0.3 minutes, measuring the equivalent total system blackout for Peninsular Malaysia.
On distribution side, he said TNB System Average Interruption Duration Index or SAIDI, which measures the average duration of power interruption experienced by a customer in a year, remained stable at 35.3 minutes.