PETALING JAYA: Sime Darby Bhd’s net earnings for its second quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 saw a 11% dip to RM282 million, from RM317 million in the same quarter a year ago, on the recognition of a deferred tax credit of RM129 million arising from the change in real property gains tax (RPGT) rates in the previous corresponding period.
Revenue, on the other hand, rose 8.3% to RM10.2 billion, from RM9.4 billion previously.
For the cumulative period, the group saw a 2.5% decline in net profit to RM528 million from RM542 million at the same time last year while revenue stood at RM19.7 billion, 7.8% higher than the RM18.3 billion seen before.
The group announced an interim dividend of 2 sen per share for FY20 ending June 30, 2020.
In a statement, group CEO Datuk Jeffri Salim Davidson said that while Sime Darby’s China-based operations performed commendably over 1HFY20, he was cautious over its prospects in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“It is still too early to predict the full impact of the outbreak on our operations, particularly for China and Singapore, but we are actively managing the situation, with the safety and wellbeing of our employees, customers and visitors to our facilities being our top priority. We remain hopeful that the outbreak will be contained in the near future,” he said.
At the noon trading break, Sime Darby shares were unchanged at RM2, with a turnover of 1.9 million shares.
