PETALING JAYA: Hartalega Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the third quarter ended Dec 31, 2018 rose 5.96% to RM119.76 million from RM113.02 million a year ago, in tandem with higher sales achieved.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the group said the improvement in sales revenue was driven by growing demand from customers and higher average selling price in tandem with increase in nitrile cost.
Revenue for the quarter rose 19.94% to RM723.39 million from RM603.14 million a year ago.
Hartalega has proposed to declare a second interim dividend of 2.2 sen per share in respect of the financial year ending March 31, 2019, payable on March 28, 2019.
For the nine months ended Dec 31, 2018, its net profit rose 13.04% to RM364.84 million from RM322.75 million a year ago, while revenue for the period rose 19.86% to RM2.14 billion from RM1.79 billion.
Moving forward, Hartalega expects the glove industry to face a challenging business environment which includes increased competition and cost increases such as the minimum wage increase effective since January this year.
“However, Hartalega remains optimistic of the longer term prospects moving forward, underpinned by growing demand for rubber gloves, ongoing NGC (Next Generation Integrated Glove Manufacturing Complex) expansion and potential growth of AMG (antimicrobial) market share,” it said.
