It attributed the better performance to higher earnings in the property and construction segments following the divestment of the highway segment last year.

Despite having lost contributions from the highway segment, which came close to RM35.43 million in 2Q22, the company continues to perform well.

Net profit from construction jumped 52% to RM140.6 million while the property segment saw a 10% rise in net profit to RM54.01 million over the previous corresponding quarter.

The company also tripled its offshore earnings to RM97.58 million, accounting for more than half of its overall earnings. This was led by investments in Australia and Vietnam.

Quarterly revenue also saw an increase of 32% to RM2.2 billion from last year’s RM1.7 billion.

Gamuda’s net profit for the first half ended Jan 31, 2023 (1H23) rose more than three times to RM1.4 billion from RM329 million in 1H22. This was due to the RM1 billion, one-off cash gain on the divestment of its four highways.

The group’s half-year revenue stood at RM3.7 billion, a 26% increase from the RM2.9 billion recorded in the previous half-year.

Gamuda expects this year’s performance to be driven by property sales.

It said that while it had to divest its four highways to Amanat Lebuhraya Rakyat (ALR), it expects the Sydney Metro West-Western Tunnelling Package, the Coffs Harbour Bypass and the M1 Motorway Extension projects in Australia to make up for the loss.

The engineering and property company has amassed an order book of almost RM21 billion and unbilled property sales of RM5.4 billion.

On top of that, the group has a healthy balance sheet with almost net zero gearing.

The group paid out a dividend of 6 sen per ordinary share on March 2, 2023 for a payout ratio of 80.78%.

At close of trading today, the share was up 1.47% or 6 sen to RM4.14, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM11.01 billion.