BAuto Q4 net profit more than doubles, proposes 5 sen dividend

PETALING JAYA: Bermaz Auto Bhd’s (BAuto) net profit for the fourth quarter ended April 30, 2018 more than doubled to RM57.19 million from RM22.21 million a year ago, largely due to higher revenue recorded by the domestic operations, improvement in gross profit margin as a result of the strengthening ringgit against the Japanese yen and higher share of profit contribution from its associate company, Mazda Malaysia Sdn Bhd (MMSB).
Revenue jumped 61.2% to RM570.59 million compared with RM354.03 million in the previous year’s corresponding quarter.
The group has recommended a fourth interim dividend of 2.3 sen per share and a special dividend of 2.7 sen per share for the quarter under review.
For the full-year period, BAuto’s net profit soared 19.1% to RM140.07 million from RM117.65 million, while revenue expanded 20.1% to RM1.99 billion from RM1.66 billion.
Despite total industry volume for passenger cars in Malaysia for the first four months of 2018 being 1.3% lower year-on-year, Mazda has regained its number sixth position, overtaking Mercedes Benz and BMW, with a growth of 47% compared with the same period last year.
The group’s performance has improved since the third quarter of its financial year, benefitted from its ever popular new CX-5 model since its launch in October 2017, both in terms of market share as well as profitability.
BAuto said the higher volume of cars to be exported to the Asean region to cater for the increasing demand coupled with the high demand in the domestic market is expected to drive up the profitability of MMSB.
It is expected to show improvements in the financial year ending April 30, 2019.