KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) says the remodelled Light Rail Transit’s Line 3 (LRT 3) project and settlement over the Eastern Dispersal Link will bolster its finances.
“We are very upbeat on the LRT3 project and the recent termination and settlement agreement with the government in relation to the EDL, which will significantly strengthen our balance sheet,” MRCB group managing director Imran Salim said in a statement on its interim results today.
MRCB’s net profit rose to RM74.78 million in the nine months ended September 30 2018 from RM63.26 million a year ago. Group revenue dropped 37 per cent to RM1.5 billion.
The revenue decline was due to the absence of two big revenue contributors last year namely the refurbishment of the KL Sports City in Bukit Jalil and toll collection revenue from the EDL. Both made up over half of MRCB’s total revenue in 2017.
MRCB said its pre-tax profit fell one per cent to RM114.1 million due to the impact of the LRT3 project.
It was re-modelled to a fixed price contract, which had resulted in the re-timing of income recognition from the project to future quarters.
The group said its engineering, construction and environment division saw margins almost triple to eight per cent during the first
nine months.
The division also saw a contribution of RM20.7 million net profit from the group’s 50 per cent-owned LRT3 project company MRCB George Kent Sdn Bhd.
While much higher than the RM7.2 million recorded in the same period last year, it was significantly lower than budgeted, because of the re-negotiations with the government, MRCB explained.
The division has an external client order book of RM5.9 billion with an unbilled portion of RM4.8 billion.
The property development and investment division recorded a 42.4 per cent increase in revenue to RM882.9 million. This was driven by the sale of a piece of freehold land which contributed a pre-tax profit of RM37.6 million.
The group’s unbilled property sales stood at RM1.6 billion as at September 30 this year.