Saturday, May 28, 2011

IJM posts 4Q net loss of RM20.19m on overseas projects

KUALA LUMPUR: IJM Corp Bhd swung into the red in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011 with net loss of RM20.19 million versus a net profit of RM111.04 million a year ago due to its overseas operations.

It said on Friday, May 27 operating profit before tax fell by 53.9% to RM75 million compared to RM163 million a year ago 'following the provision made against contractual claims, recovery of receivables and project losses in some of the group's overseas projects'.

Its revenue rose 20.9% to RM1.047 billion from RM866.46 million mainly due to the CONSTRUCTION [], property, industry and infrastructure divisions. It announced an interim dividend of 7.0 sen a share.

For the full year, net profit slipped 3.4% to RM321.32 million from RM332.58 million. Revenue declined to RM3.72 billion from RM4.01 billion.

IJM Corp said in the 4Q it was impacted by the crude palm oil (CPO) pricing swaps, notching losses of RM12.08 million for the year, due to the price differential between market price and contracted price. This was due to the increase in market CPO price above the contracted prices.

It also said RM355.03 million was incurred up to March 31, 2011 to develop the oil palm PLANTATION []s in Indonesia. 'A further sum of RM503.22 million has been included in the above stated capital commitment,' it said.

On the outlook, IJM Corp said the group's construction division's performance was expected to improve as order book replenishment prospects remain encouraging while many of the group's local projects are expected to go full-swing in the coming financial year.

'Following the strong results achieved in the current financial year, the group's property division expects to sustain its performance in the coming financial year on the back of strong unbilled sales in excess of RM 1 billion.

'Likewise, the group's industry division expects a recovery in the sales of building materials in tandem with the expected growth in construction activity. Meanwhile, the expected recovery in fresh fruit bunches (FFB) production and the current high crude palm oil prices will likely augur well for the group's plantation division,' it said.

IJM Corp said the Malaysian tolling and port operations were expected to continue to provide steady revenue streams to the Group's Infrastructure division.

However, it cautioned that initial expensing of its higher finance costs and amortisation of new toll concessions in India were expected to dampen its divisional results.

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