MRCB upbeat despite net profit slipping to RM101.2m

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd’s (MRCB) net profit for the financial year ended December 31, 2018 (FY18) decreased 37.5 per cent to RM101.17 million from RM161.91 million in FY17.

The company said yesterday the lower net profit was due to the absence of one-off disposal gains recognised in 2017 and the slowing down of construction work on the Light Rail Transit 3 (LRT 3) project being undertaken by 50 per cent-owned MRCB George Kent Sdn Bhd during negotiations with the government on its change from a project partner (PDP) to a fixed-price turnkey contract.

It said deferred income from the project would resume this year and continue until the project’s completion in 2024 after the contract agreement was executed on January 25.

“A major challenge for us last year was the re-modelling of the LRT3 project, which impacted our performance considerably and resulted in profits being much lower than we budgeted.

“Now that the new contract has been signed, the deferred revenue will begin to flow again this year,” said MRCB group managing director Imran Salim.

Revenue in FY18 dropped 29.2 per cent to RM1.87 billion from RM2.64 billion.

On its prospects, MRCB said the group’s property segment had total cumulative unbilled sales that were expected to deliver RM1.6 billion in revenue, to be booked over the development life span of its projects. of which 87 per cent are residential and the balance being commercial.