SHAH ALAM: Continued strong demand in the automotive sector enabled DRB-Hicom Bhd to end the first nine months of the year with a pre-tax profit (PBT) of RM370.63 million, from a net loss of RM532.22 million recorded for the corresponding period in 2021 on continued strong automotive demand.
Revenue for the first nine months was RM11.16 billion for the same period ended Sept 30, 2022, an increase of 35.3% from RM8.25 billion in the same period in 2021.
For the quarter ended Sept 30, 2022, the group recorded a revenue of RM4.54 billion, which more than doubled the revenue of RM2.12 billion in the corresponding quarter last year. Net profit for the quarter was RM221.83 million, compared with a net loss of RM245.44 million for the corresponding period last year.
The positive financial results were attributed to the better performance from the group’s operating companies, especially the automotive sector, banking sector as well as the aerospace and defence sector.
DRB-Hicom’s automotive sector brought in RM8.01 billion in revenue in the first nine months, a 54.7% improvement from the corresponding period last year, mainly from national carmaker Proton, automotive distribution companies, and manu-facturing and engineering companies.
These companies were significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the movement control order during corresponding period in the previous year.
Proton’s revival continues as its models received updates in 2022, leading to it breaching the 100,000 mark at the end of September with 102,353 units delivered.
The revenue of RM540.19 million was recognised by the aerospace and defence sector for the first nine months of this year, an increase of 19.7% from the corresponding period in 2021.
The group anticipates the performance for current financial year ending Dec 31, 2022 to be better than last year.
