Mah Sing Q3 earnings up marginally on lower taxation

PETALING JAYA: Mah Sing Group Bhd saw a marginal 0.5% improvement in net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 to RM92.31 million from RM91.89 million a year ago due to lower taxation.
Profit from operating activities however was 4.4%lower at RM116.68 million for the quarter, compared with RM122.09 million on lower revenue.
Revenue was down 3.8% to RM704.26 million compared with RM732.37 million in the previous year's corresponding quarter.
For the nine months period, there was a marginal decline of 1.0% in its net profit to RM273.12 million from RM275.75 million a year ago; while
revenue fell 2.7% to RM2.15 billion compared with RM2.22 billion in the preceding year's nine months period.
The group said its strong branding and attractive product price points below the RM500,000 threshold, puts it in a good position to meet the strong current market demand for affordable housing and is in line with the government's broad objective to enable everyone to own a home.
The group’s healthy balance sheet and cash balances as at Sept 30, 2017 provide strong opportunities to the group to lock in more land and/or to explore on joint ventures with focus on affordable housing projects within the Klang Valley.
Mah Sing's share price closed 0.65% lower at RM1.52 with 239,400 shares traded.