Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad Records Profit

KUCHING, May 19 (Malaysiaaktif) — Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad (CMSB – 2852), the State’s leading infrastructure facilitator has announced strong performance for the first quarter ended 31 March 2015 (1Q15) (unaudited).

The Group reported a total revenue of RM491.00 million for 1Q15, a 32% increase from the preceding year’s corresponding quarter’s (1Q14) revenue of RM373.24 million. The pre-tax profit (PBT) of RM95.01 million reported for 1Q15 was a 44% increase from 1Q14’s PBT of RM66.19 million.

The company in a statement released Monday, said  its profit after tax and non-controlling interests (PATNCI) increased by 48% to RM57.42 million from RM38.90 million in 1Q14. Earnings per share stood at 5.52 sen versus 3.81 sen (adjusted for share split & bonus issue in June 2014) from the corresponding three-month period of last year.

 The main contributors towards the strong PBT earnings for 1Q15 were the Construction Materials & Trading, Cement and Construction & Road Maintenance Divisions. The Construction Materials & Trading Division recorded a PBT of RM30.32 million in 1Q15, a 145% increase in comparison to 1Q14’s PBT of RM12.38 million.

The Cement Division reported a PBT of RM29.37 million for 1Q15, exceeding 1Q15’s PBT of RM20.44 million by 44%. The Construction & Road Maintenance and Property Development Divisions also reported strong revenue and PBT to contribute towards the Group’s results for 1Q15.

Commenting on the results, Dato’ Richard Curtis, Group Managing Director of CMSB said, “This has been an important quarter for us in terms of taking advantage of strong local demand for our products and services so as to record better than expected results which is a credit to our management team.

He said, “significant achievements have been recorded namely by the Construction Materials & Trading, Cement and Construction & Road Maintenance Divisions.

“With commendable performance recorded in 1Q15, we expect to leverage on this positive momentum and record a strong financial performance for the full year of 2015.”

 According to Curtis, , the company believed that CMSB is still one of the best proxy listed investments for Sarawak’s accelerating economic growth.

This is, he said, was consistent with the State’s promotion of energy intensive industries under the Sarawak Corridor for Renewable Energy (SCORE) initiative and the infrastructure and related services required across the State.

Curtis said, these two drivers are set to propel the State’s economy and CMSB to new heights.

CMSB’s 25% stake in the joint venture ferro silicon and manganese alloys smelter project with Australian listed OM Holdings Ltd, and 40% stake in an integrated Phosphate Products complex with Malaysian Phosphate Additives Sdn Bhd and Arif Enigma Sdn Bhd – plus other investments being evaluated – are poised to significantly drive up shareholder value.