PETALING JAYA: Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd (BToto) reported a net profit of RM48.61 million on the back of RM1.33 billion in revenue for the third quarter ended March 31, mainly contributed by sales from the number forecast operator (NFO) business by the group’s principal subsidiary Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd and the auto retailing business operated by HR Owen Plc.
The board does not recommend any dividend for the current quarter under review, however, the total dividend declared and paid for the financial period ended March 31 is 8 sen per share, amounting to approximately RM107.8 million.
For the nine month cumulative period, BToto saw net earnings of RM177.5 million and a revenue of RM4.18 billion, mainly contributed by sales from Sports Toto and HR Owen.
In its Bursa filing, the group said its results were impacted by the implementation of lockdown measures by the various countries which has affected the operations of the main subsidiaries.
“This included the cancellation of six draws by Sports Toto in the current period under review following the movement control order (MCO) which was imposed by the Malaysian government effective March 18, and the loss of more than one week of operations for HR Owen when the operations were shut down in compliance with the UK government’s lockdown order effective March 23,” it added.
Looking ahead, BToto said despite the challenging operating environment, it is cautiously optimistic that the business will gradually recover given that the NFO industry was fairly resilient in the past economic crises.
Based on the assumption that the conditional MCO ends on June 9, and the NFO operators are allowed to resume operations on June 10 onwards, Sports Toto will effectively have only nine draws during the fourth quarter ending June 30.
“With the assumed resumption of operations on June 10, Sports Toto sales outlets will be implementing new social distancing rules and other guidelines under the standard operating procedures issued by the National Security Council. The introduction of these measures and fear of the pandemic may affect customers’ confidence in the immediate term,” it said.
Nevertheless, with the operations of the main subsidiaries being shut down for more than two months in the fourth quarter ending June 30, the group’s results will be significantly impacted for the remaining quarter of FY2020.
