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Bina Darulaman Bhd‘s pre-tax profit increased to RM8.3 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2011 from RM2.7 million in the same period last year. The company’s revenue was also higher by 90 per cent to RM70.3 million from RM37 million previously. In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, it said all core activities of the group performed better, contributing higher revenue and profit margins. Bina Darulaman said for the next three months, the company expects to continue to focus on its existing core business, namely construction and quarry, road construction and property divisions. It said the construction and quarry and road construction divisions will concentrate on completing all ongoing projects as scheduled, while the property division will focus on clearing stocks in various schemes launched during the year.

Spritzer Bhd‘s pre-tax profit decreased to RM2.1 million in the first quarter ended Aug 31, 2011 from RM3.3 million in the same quarter last year. The company’s revenue, however, increased by 18 per cent to RM41.2 million from RM34.8 million, mainly contributed by higher sales of various bottled water products. In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, Spritzer said profit was lower as the substantial incremental revenue was made up of lower-margin drinking water products. The increase in operating expenses also contributed to the lower profit and the company also incurred higher finance and overhead cost attributed mainly to the recent expansion plan and the setting up of the Shah Alam bottling plant. Spritzer said while the domestic economic outlook has remained positive, the global economic outlook has turned uncertain mainly due to the unresolved European sovereign debt issues. It said the volatility of raw material prices and domestic inflation may pose greater challenges to the company, adding it will continue to focus on improving its productivity and operational efficiency to remain competitive. Spritzer said with the continuous efforts to leverage on its strong brand, the company remains confident that the volumes of its bottled water products will continue to grow.

PLB Engineering Bhd‘s pre-tax profit for the fourth quarter ended Aug 31, 2011, rose to RM3.56 million from RM1.996 million recorded in the same period last year. Revenue for the quarter slipped to RM30.939 million as compared to RM32.812 million in the same quarter last year, it said in a financial statement today.

NCB Holdings Bhd‘s pre-tax profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2011 increased to RM55.64 million from RM54.33 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose to RM240.37 million from RM221.72 million previously. In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, NCB said the increase in revenue was mainly from the expansion of third-party business activities. “There are signs indicating positive growth in these areas during the remaining period of the year,” it said. Looking ahead, NCB said, the competitive environment would continue to exist during the remaining months of the year.

DiGi.Com Bhd, a Malaysian mobile-phone operator, said third-quarter net income rose to RM292.4 million from RM289.3 million. Revenue climbed to RM1.52 billion from RM1.35 billion, it said in a statement in Kuala Lumpur today.

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Asia Media Group Bhd, the country’s largest transit-television network operator, plans to launch a terrestrial digital TV station by as early as the first quarter of next year, said its controlling stakeholder Datuk Ricky Wong Shee Kai.

“We have started testing works in Puchong and Shah Alam early this month, and have allocated as much as RM50 million in capital expenditure next year to help us with the launch in the Klang Valley,” Wong told Business Times in an interview at his office.

Wong, who owns slightly more than 45 per cent of Asia Media, is also the chief executive officer of the company.

“A partial launch will be done in the first quarter, and by the second quarter, we should be in full swing,” said Wong.

He said the first step in the plan to launch the terrestrial digital TV station is to launch the “out-of-home service”.

“Out-of-home service means that people who use public transport such as the Rapid buses and the city’s rail service will be able to watch live TV,” said Wong.

Currently, Asia Media operates transit TV services for the city buses, but most of the feed are pre-recorded, with the content coming from third parties.

“We will be recruiting as many as 100 people – (newscasters, talk show hosts, technical support people) and plan to rent a studio in Damansara for the live TV version,” said Wong, adding that by going live, Asia Media is hoping to rake in more advertisement dollars.

Asia Media is expecting to bring in as much as RM50 million next year from advertisements alone.

Wong said most of the shows will be in English and Bahasa Malaysia, with content coming directly from Asia Media. “We will be focusing on news-based items as well as talk shows,” said Wong, adding that the company also has a licence to operate a radio network.

“The radio network will focus mainly on the Chinese market,” said Wong.

He added that while the live show concept is new to Southeast Asia, it has been successfully operated in countries such as Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

“We can also operate a subscription-based as well as free-to-air terrestrial digital TV, but we have to be realistic,” said Wong.

According to Wong, apart from the cost, finding the right content is the major drawback, pulling the company away from this path.

“We are committed to spend RM500 million over a 10-year period to bring the out-of-home terrestrial digital TV station to areas outside the Klang Valley such as Ipoh, Penang and Johor … so it will be taxing for us to fight on two fronts,” said Wong.

He saidAsia Media does not want to expand for the sake of expanding. “We only want to do so if it keeps us profitable,” said Wong, adding that he is confident Asia Media will post a pre-tax profit of about RM15 million this year.

Last Friday, Asia Media said for the nine months ended August 30 2011, the firm’s pre-tax profit stood at RM11.74 million versus RM8.13 million in the same period a year ago.

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Public Bank Bhd raked in slightly better-than-expected earnings on strong revenue growth, cost efficiency and good asset quality, which contributed to the improvement in credit charges during the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2011.

The banking group saw its third-quarter net profit for financial year 2011 grow 14.8% to RM898.79mil, compared with RM782.7mil for the corresponding period last year, while revenue grew 13.7% to RM3.27bil from RM2.88bil previously. Earnings per share rose to 25.7 sen for the quarter from 22.3 sen previously.

“The outlook of the Malaysian banking sector, in which the group largely operates in, continues to be stable and supportive of growth. We continue to see the group’s business performance to be in line with expectations and on track in meeting the key business targets for 2011,” said Public Bank chairman Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow in a statement yesterday.

While Public Bank managed to post a strong performance on an annual basis, some analysts noted that there were already indications that growth momentum for the bank had moderated since the third quarter of this year.

“Looking at the present trend, it is pretty clear that growth will continue to slow down even more into the fourth quarter,” MIDF Research banking analyst Calvin Ong said.

Another analyst from a local research house, however, said Public Bank could benefit from a potential pickup in lending activities in a still-strong local economic environment in the fourth quarter and would likely gain from the spillover effects from the Economic Transformation Programme initiatives.

For the nine-month period, Public Bank’s net profit grew 20.9% to RM2.61bil on revenue of RM9.43bil, compared with a net profit of RM2.2bil on revenue of RM8.06bil for the same period last year.

The group managed to sustain its market leadership in domestic lending for residential mortgages, commercial property financing and passenger vehicles financing with market shares of 18.0%, 33.7% and 25.7%, respectively. Its lending remained focused on the retail sector, with loans to mid-market commercial enterprises as well as loans for the financing of residential properties and purchase of passenger vehicles accounting for 85% of the total loan portfolio of the group as at the end of September 2011.

The group’s residential properties and passenger vehicles financing grew at annualised rates of 17.7% and 9.7% respectively for the first nine months, which outperformed the growth rates of the industry of 12.5% and 6.7% respectively.

The Public Bank group’s funding position remained robust supported by its strong retail franchise and large domestic depositor base of over 4.5 million customers.

Gross loans book stood at RM172.7bil, recording a growth of 13.8% on an annualised basis. Domestic loans growth remained strong with an annualised growth rate of 14.1%. Over the same period, total customer deposits grew by an annualised rate of 12.7% to RM193.7bil, while domestic customer deposits grew at a stronger 13.8%.

Domestic customer deposits grew at an annualised rate of 13.8%, compared with the domestic banking industry’s annualised growth of 9.8%. This was mainly attributed to steady inflows of fixed and savings deposits, which grew at annualised rates of 12.2% and 11.9% respectively, outperforming the Malaysian banking industry’s annualised 9.5% growth in fixed deposits and 9.1% growth in savings deposits.

For the nine months, Public Bank’s overseas operations contributed 6.5% of the group’s overall pre-tax profit, compared with 7.6% contribution in 2010 due to the negative effect of foreign exchange differences.

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