KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 — Gamuda Bhd swung to a net loss of RM17.34 million for the fourth quarter (Q4) ended July 31, 2020, from a net profit of RM179.02 million a year earlier due mainly to a one-off impairment of RM148 million on industrialised building system (IBS) assets.
Excluding this one-off impairment, the infrastructure and property development group posted a core net profit of RM131 million for Q4 2020, a decrease of 27 per cent from last year’s quarterly profit, it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.
The one-off impairment was because the group temporarily shut down its smaller IBS factory in Sepang and consolidated all operations at the larger IBS Banting factory as the Movement Control Order (MCO) affected the supply chain.
Revenue was also lower at RM926.52 million versus RM1.50 billion previously.
Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, the group’s property sales in Vietnam continued to do well while the OLA executive condominium, the group’s latest property project in Singapore, pre-sold one-third or S$230 million worth of properties since its launch in mid-March 2020.
Gamuda Land sold RM1 billion worth of properties in the quarter under review, a sharp rebound from the previous quarter’s sales of RM250 million, and almost on par with the RM1.1 billion sold in the fourth quarter of 2019.
For the full year, the group’s net profit plunged 47 per cent to RM371.68 million while revenue slipped to RM3.66 billion from RM4.57 billion in the preceding year.
On its outlook, Gamuda said the group did not expect any further impairment on the IBS assets in the foreseeable future.
It is anticipated that next year’s performance will be driven by overseas property sales, Vietnam and Singapore, and the continued progress of MRT Line 2.
“Moving forward, the resilience of the group is underpinned by its construction order book of RM7 billion and unbilled property sales totalling RM3.3 billion which will see it through the next two years. On top of that, the group has a healthy balance sheet with a prudent gearing of 0.3 times,” it said.
—- Bernama
