Boustead Q4 earnings soar on disposal gains

PETALING JAYA: Boustead Holdings Bhd's net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2016 jumped over 28-fold to RM120.70 million from RM4.2 million a year ago mainly due to gain on divestments of Jendela Hikmat and Boustead Sedili as well as sale of land.
Its revenue fell marginally to RM2.42 billion compared with RM2.44 billion in the previous year's corresponding quarter.
Its net profit rose almost 28 times to RM369 million from RM13.20 million a year ago mainly due to gain on divestments of Jendela Hikmat and Boustead Sedili as well as sale of lands. In addition, the operating results from plantation and trading & industrial divisions were also better.
However revenue was 3% down at RM8.37 billion from RM8.66 billion in the corresponding period last year.
On prospects, Boustead said it expects 2017 to be another challenging year, both globally and domestically, due mainly to uncertainties surrounding global economy, contagious effect of Brexit in Euro market, future changes in US policies and other geopolitical risks.
On the domestic front, the economy is expected to expand between 4% to 5%, notwithstanding the depreciation of ringgit and volatile commodity prices which may impede growth.
"The diversified nature of the group's business in six segments of Malaysian economy would augur well for the group," Boustead said.