The drop in earnings was attributed to rising costs of sales, administrative expenses, coupled with decreased contributions from the company’s joint venture partners, it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.
Consequently, its earnings per share declined from 8.36 sen to 7.62 sen.
The company announced a first interim dividend of 5.72 sen per share, which is slightly below the 5.9 sen disbursed in the corresponding quarter last year, to be paid out on Oct 27.
The group witnessed an uptick in cost of sales, rising from RM1.62 billion to RM1.87 billion. Simultaneously, administrative expenses also saw an increase, climbing to RM21.01 million from RM16.96 million.
Moreover, the company’s share of outcomes from joint ventures resulted in a loss of RM1.26 million, in contrast to a prior profit of RM890,000.
Although profitability declined, increased finance income and higher quarterly revenue partially cushioned the impact. Finance income surged to RM4.52 million, up from RM2.49 million, while revenue saw a rise from RM1.78 billion to RM2.02 billion.
This was primarily driven by an elevated average selling price of natural gas, although this increase was tempered by a reduced volume of natural gas sold.
For the first six months of FY2023, it posted a marginal 2.89% decrease in net profit to RM192.91 million compared to RM198.66 million during the same period in FY2022.
This occurred despite a substantial 25.25% revenue surge to RM4.46 billion from RM3.56 billion in the previous year, driven by elevated average natural gas selling prices.
However, the cost of sales experienced a nearly parallel surge, reaching RM4.16 billion, marking a notable increase of 27.22% from RM3.27 billion previously.
The company plans to improve operational efficiency and competitiveness through careful strategies, while also pursuing avenues for business expansion.
Gas Malaysia was established to sell, market and distribute natural gas as well as to develop, operate and maintain the Natural Gas Distribution System within Peninsular Malaysia.
Gas Malaysia’s share price closed one sen or 0.33% higher to RM3.02, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM3.88 billion.