KUALA LUMPUR: Gamuda Bhd does not expect any further impairment on its industrial building system (IBS) assets in the near future.
This is after Gamuda has set aside a one-off non-cash impairment of RM148 million on the assets in the latest financial year.
The group provided the RM148 million in the fourth quarter (Q4) ended July 31, 2020 as it temporarily shut down one of the two IBS factories.
This was due to the slower pace of building construction caused by the stringent Covid-19 induced standard operating procedures (SOPs) imposed by the authorities, and its impact on supply chain affecting the efficient ramping up of works, Gamuda said in a statement on its Q4 results last Friday.
"As the pace of building works slowed because contractors were only able to operate at about half capacity, the group temporarily shuts down its smaller IBS factory at Sepang and consolidated all operations at the larger IBS Banting factory.
"This has resulted in the group posting a RM17.34 million net loss in the Q4 from a net profit of RM179.02 million recorded in the same quarter in the previous year."
Gamuda said excluding the one-off non-cash impairment, the group had posted a core net profit of RM131 million in Q4.
Its revenue in same quarter decreased 38.2 per cent to RM926.52 million from RM1.49 billion.
Gamuda said its property development arm, Gamuda Land, had sold RM1 billion worth of properties in the quarter.
This was a sharp rebound from the previous quarter's sales of RM250 million, and almost on par with the RM1.1 billion sold in Q4 of financial year 2019.
For the full-year, the group's net profit fell 47 per cent to RM371.68 million from RM700.19 million, while revenue eased 20 per cent to RM3.66 billion from RM4.57 billion.
Gamuda said excluding the one-off non-cash impairment of RM148 million, the group had posted an annual core net profit of RM520 million, a 26 per cent decrease from last year's RM700 million net profit.
This was due to work stoppages, absence of property sales and low traffic plying its four expressways due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) in the second half of the year.
Gamuda said its resilience was underpinned by its construction order book of RM7 billion and unbilled property sales totalling RM3.3 billion which would see it through the next two years.
It said Gamuda Australia was actively bidding for over AU$10 billion worth of projects in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.
The group had a healthy balance sheet with a prudent gearing of 0.3 times, Gamuda added.