KUALA LUMPUR: Dagang Nexchange Bhd (DNeX) recorded a net profit of RM43.83 million in the second quarter (Q2) ended December 31, 2021, on the back of a revenue of RM353.31 million.
There were no comparative figures for the quarter as the company changed its financial year-end to June 30 from December 30.
For the six months, DNeX registered a net profit of RM337.39 million against RM624.18 million in revenue.
On a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, DNeX reported an operating profit of RM75.94 million with an increase of RM42.63 million compared to the immediate preceding quarter of RM33.31 million.
"The contribution mainly derived from the technology segment due to higher wafer shipments and operating expenditure (opex) optimisation resulted in higher profit in the current quarter.
"The IT segments contribute operating profits in line with revenue for the current quarter while the energy segments provide slightly lower operating profits mainly due to lower uplifting in the current quarter," it said.
Moving forward, DNeX is optimistic that semiconductor wafer foundry, SilTerra Malaysia Sdn Bhd, will deliver continuous growth as further investments are made to improve production capacity and efficiency yields.
Capital expenditure (capex) investment totalling RM645 million has been earmarked to increase the annual production capacity of SilTerra by 20 per cent to 10 million mask layers annually, which will be ready by early 2023.
"The expansion in production capacity will translate to a better economy of scale, with further improvement in manufacturing cost.
"Furthermore, SilTerra will have available capacity to expand its technical offerings in new emerging technologies such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and silicon photonics devices which have much higher average selling prices.
"This will allow SilTerra additional capacity on additional business opportunities arising from the robust demand for semiconductor chips due to rising technologies in Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things," it said.
Meanwhile, DNeX said oil and gas (O&G) upstream producer Ping Petroleum Ltd would directly benefit due to higher average selling prices, increasing profitability.
"It is an opportune time for Ping to monetise the attractive reserves in the Anasuria Cluster and execute the development of our greenfield asset, such as Avalon Oil Development," it said.
DNeX said the industry outlook for the group's core businesses, especially in semiconductors and O&G, are expected to remain favourable in the near term.
"Coupled with efforts to strengthen its business fundamentals, the group is optimistic to deliver a favourable financial performance in the financial year ending June 30, 2022," it added.