MMC net earnings fall to RM128m in Q4
Filed Under (Business News) by Webmaster on 26-02-2009
Tagged Under : earning, Malakof, MMC, power producer
MALAYSIAN conglomerate MMC Corp Bhd (2194) booked a 31.5 per cent fall in fourth-quarter net profit, hit by a RM141.9 million windfall tax at its power division.
MMC, which is developing the Jazan Economic City in Saudi Arabia, posted October-December net profit of RM128 million. Its full-year net profit was RM527 million, from RM552 million.
The company, which controls power firm Malakoff Bhd, said its power generation business reported lower earnings during the three-month period, after it set aside RM141.9 million for the windfall profit levy.
Malakoff owns 40 per cent of Kapar Energy, a 2,420-Megawatt independent power producer in the central Selangor state.
“The group’s performance was affected by a lower contribution from the energy and utilities division as a result of the full provision for the windfall profit levy and the impairment loss on investment in an associate,” MMC said in an earnings statement yesterday.
It said the impairment loss was worth RM50.6 million. Despite a deepening economic crisis around the globe, the company forecast its financial performance to stay firm in 2009.
“Notwithstanding the current adverse economic scenario, the board expects the group’s financial results in 2009 to be satisfactory compared to those achieved in the last financial year,” it said. It did not elaborate.
Ahead of the results, MMC’s shares rose 0.7 per cent to RM1.41 as the broader market gained 0.3 per cent. The stock slumped 78 per cent last year, underperforming the benchmark stock index’s 39 per cent loss. – Reuters
