Monday, May 16, 2011

Latexx 1Q net profit falls 38.6% to RM12.73m on higher latex cost

KUALA LUMPUR: LATEXX PARTNERS BHD [] net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011 fell 38.6% to RM12.73 million from RM20.72 million a year earlier, due mainly to persistently high latex price and continuous weakening of the US dollar that impacted its profit margin.

Revenue for the quarter fell 25.2% to RM94.75 million from RM126.17 million in 2010. Earnings per share was 5.82 sen while net assets per share was RM1.12.

On its prospects, Latexx said its customer base was still very much centric to the US market, taking up about 70% of its total sales in FY2010.

The company said that in the past, it had not tried to tap into the rest of the regions beside the North America market, including Europe, Middle East, Japan, India, and China.

'In the current quarter, the Group has picked up the momentum initiated in the previous quarter and further geared up its aggressiveness to advance its product presence and market share in these markets.

'There are evidences that the Group has advanced itself to its ultimate goal to enlarge its revenue based by capturing more market shares in the non-USA markets, e.g. other regions beside the USA contributed 51% of the Group's sales in the current quarter,' it said.

Latexx said it was committed and would continue to pursue the goal.

The company said it also continued to aggressively penetrate into the non-medical markets, particularly the food-handling, beauty and daily personal hygiene as well as the industrial sectors, via the latest ultra-thin nitrile glove range successfully developed by the Group.

The group is ready to tap on the potential demand growth for in these sectors driven by the heightening of hygiene and work safety awareness, it said.

Latexx said that in line with its strategies, it would allocate more capacity to nitrile production in the coming months, ultimately to achieve 80% of nitrile gloves production in the product mix.

'Although the current nitrile latex prices have been in the increasing trend, nitrile gloves are still relatively cheaper than natural rubber gloves,' it said.

Latexx said it continued to adopt effective cost saving measures to mitigate the impact of the rising raw material costs.

It also said it currently has a larger capacity base with approximately eight billion pieces per annum compared with six billion pieces per annum in 2010, and would be be able to increase the allocation of capacity to its customers based on their requirement.

Latexx said it had observed encouraging leads that indicated that demand for its product had picked up and that it was expecting a stronger second quarter.

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