PETALING JAYA: Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd’s (BToto) net profit for the third quarter ended Jan 31, 2019 fell marginally to RM59.07 million from RM59.23 million a year ago due to lower results of Philippine Gaming Management Corp (PGMC) and Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, BToto said Sports Toto’s pre-tax profit fell 6.2% due to higher prize payout during the quarter while PGMC’s pre-tax profit fell 65.8% due to lower lease rental income earned from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
However, this was mitigated by H.R. Owen Plc’s 36.4% growth in pre-tax profit mainly contributed by higher profit attained from higher sales in the new car sector.
BToto’s revenue for the quarter fell 3.04% to RM1.36 billion from RM1.4 billion a year ago due to lower revenue reported by H.R. Owen and PGMC.
For the nine months ended Jan 31, the group’s net profit rose 5.62% to RM206.25 million from RM195.28 million a year ago mainly driven by the improved results of H.R. Owen.
Revenue for the period fell 1.06% to RM4.21 billion from RM4.26 billion a year ago.
BToto declared a third interim dividend of 3.5 sen per share in respect of the financial year ending April 30, 2019 (FY19), payable on May 10. The entitlement date has been fixed on April 12.
The third interim dividend distribution for FY19 amounts to RM47.1 million. The total dividend distribution for the nine months ended Jan 31 is 11.5 sen per share amounting to about RM154.9 million, which represents 75.1% of the attributable profit of the group for the period.
BToto expects Sports Toto’s performance to be satisfactory and the group is confident that it will continue to maintain its market share in the number forecast business for the remaining quarter.
