Scientex upbeat on continued growth this year

PETALING JAYA: Scientex Bhd is eyeing continued growth in its manufacturing and property operations this year, after posting a slight increase in net profit to RM140 million for the first half ended January 31.

Its revenue grew to RM1.3 billion from RM1.1 billion last year.

“For our manufacturing segment, we are confident of achieving stronger performance, buoyed by increasing global demand. We have made commendable progress in securing new customers and larger orders thus far, and are poised to fill up our capacities for the rest of the year,” said managing director Lim Peng Jin in a statement.

“With our property development segment noting encouraging new sales performance, the group is also looking to launch RM600 million worth of properties for the second half of the financial year ending July 31, to cater for increasing demand for affordably priced homes.”

He said its manufacturing segment performed commendably, with more orders from its regional clientele, and recorded steadily increasing capacity utilisation.

“The sustained growth validates the recently-completed expansions to our capacity and product range, which allows us to capture more opportunities in the increasing global full-packaged product (FPP) market, especially in high-growth Asia,” he added.

Scientex is in the process of acquiring Klang Hock Plastic Industries Sdn Bhd (KHPI), a leading domestic and regional manufacturer of FPP with an annual revenue of close to RM400 million. The integration of KHPI into the group’s operations is also expected to further boost its competitive edge in the global FPP market.

Scientex’s manufacturing segment saw export contribution rising 16.2 per cent to RM354.9 million in the second quarter, from RM305.4 million previously. Its property development segment revenue grew 2.3 per cent to RM178.3 million from RM174.3 million in the same quarter last year, attributed to resilient demand for the group’s ongoing affordable developments in Johor, Melaka and Perak.

The group’s property development projects reached RM10 billion in gross development value in the second quarter compared with RM8.1 billion earlier.

It has unbilled sales of RM500 million, to be recognised over the next three years.