2 weeks ago
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PETALING JAYA: Bermaz Auto Bhd’s (BAuto) net profit for its second quarter ended Oct 31, 2020 jumped 21.59% to RM24.79 million from RM20.39 million a year ago, mainly due to higher profit contribution from domestic operations attributed to higher unit sales.
It reported a 31.2% increase in revenue to RM599.84 million for the quarter under review compared with RM457.17 million in the corresponding quarter of the preceding year, largely due to the improvement in sales volume from the group’s domestic operations despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The improvement in sales volume for the domestic operations was mainly attributed to the positive impact from the Short-Term Recovery Plan economic stimulus package (Penjana) introduced by the government in June 2020, which provides 100% sales tax exemption on completely knocked down vehicles and 50% sales tax exemption on completely built up vehicles from June 15, to Dec 31, 2020.
The market reacted positively to BAuto’s aggressive promotional campaign offering six years of warranty free and six years of free maintenance to boost sales.
For the six-month period, its net profit more than halved to RM34.04 million from RM70.9 million largely due to lower profit contribution from the domestic operations and share of loss contribution from Mazda Malaysia Sdn Bhd.
The profit contribution from the domestic operations was lower mainly due to lower gross profit margin arising from the change in sales mix and more aggressive promotional activities, especially in the first quarter of the financial year before the introduction of the Penjana economic stimulus package by the government.
The loss contribution from Mazda Malaysia was mainly due to the significant drop in unit sales from both the domestic and export markets during the MCO and the CMCO in certain states of Malaysia, as well as the regional lockdowns.
It also accounted for the expense relating to its employees’ share scheme of about RM1.6 million in the period under review as compared to RM2.3 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.
However, the group registered a higher revenue of RM1.05 billion compared with revenue of RM992.21 million registered in the corresponding period of the preceding year. The 5.7% increase was primarily due to higher sales volume from the domestic operations.
The board has approved and declared a second interim dividend of 1.25 sen single-tier dividend per share in respect of the financial year ending April 30, 2021 to be payable on Feb 5, 2021. The entitlement date has been fixed for Jan 18, 2021. This will bring the total dividend declared for the financial period ended Oct 31, 2020 to 1.75 sen single tier per share.
“Although the financial results for this second quarter under review have been encouraging, the group is nevertheless cautious of the resurgence of Covid-19 cases and its impact on the overall economy and expects the automotive sector to remain challenging in 2020/2021. Hence, any launch of new and/or new facelift Mazda models will be dependent on market sentiments and economic conditions then,” BAuto said.
Premised on the foregoing, the directors anticipate that the performance of the group for the remaining quarters of the financial year ending April 30, 2021 will remain challenging.
English (United States)