KUALA LUMPUR: Bermaz Auto Bhd’s (BAuto) net profit surged 89.5 per cent to RM265.27 million in the year ended April 30, 2019 (FY19) from RM139.98 million last year.
In an exchange filing today, BAuto said higher earnings was due to improvement in gross profit margin from the domestic operations, and a significantly higher share of profit contribution from Mazda Malaysia Sdn Bhd.
The company’s FY19 revenue jumped 25.13 per cent to RM2.49 billion from RM1.99 billion previously due to robust sales volume growth from the domestic operations as the change in Goods and Services Tax (GST) from the standard rate of six per cent to zero per cent from June to August 2018.
For the fourth-quarter period, BAuto’s net profit increased 5.01 per cent to RM60.06 million from RM57.19 million, while revenue decreased 5.66 per cent to RM538.28 million from RM570.59 million.
BAuto said Bank Negara Malaysia’s reduction of the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis point to three per cent, might lower hire purchase interest rate.
“Hence the move is expected to boost consumer spending which will give positive impact on the total industry volume (TIV) growth.”
Malaysian Automotive Association has projected a TIV of 600,000 units for 2019 after taking into consideration subdued global economy.
“The uncertainties over the ongoing trade war between the US and China, review of mega projects by the government post General Election 14th, a persistently weak ringgit and more stringent hire purchase guidelines could further affect local consumer sentiment,” BAuto said.
However, it said the expected launch of the all-new Mazda3, CX-8, CX-30 and the facelift of the popular CX-5 model which includes the 2.5cc Turbo variant in the second half of the calendar year 2019 might mitigate some of the challenges.
BAuto declared a special dividend of seven sen per share and fourth interim single-tier dividend of 3.5 sen per share for FY19, payable on July 25.