TNB to pay 21.41 sen dividend
Group expects performance for financial year 2018 to remain stable
PETALING JAYA: Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) posted a one-month net profit of RM603.9mil last December, resulting in total earnings of RM2.76bil for the final four months of 2017.
Based on the performance, the national utility group has proposed a final single-tier dividend of 21.41 sen per share in respect of the financial period ended Dec 31, 2017.
The short financial period of four months commencing from Sept 1, 2017 to Dec 31, 2017 was due to TNB changing its fiscal year-end to Dec 31 from Aug 31.
Hence, the group said no comparison of performance could be made for the current period in review due to the change in its fiscal year.
TNB’s shares yesterday fell six sen to close at RM15.70.
The group’s earnings per share (EPS) for December 2017 stood at 10.67 sen on a revenue of RM4.22bil.
For the four months to December 2017, TNB’s EPS stood at 48.68 sen, and its revenue totalled RM15.83bil.
President and CEO Datuk Seri Azman Mohd said the closing period of December 2017 marked the end of the First Regulatory Period (RP1) of the Incentive-Based Regulation (IBR) Framework.
“During the period, the mechanism has been successfully implemented, resulting in the improvement of TNB’s overall efficiency in operations and businesses.
“Furthermore, the company’s stable earnings from the successful IBR implementation is vital, as it ensures that the company will be able to continuously contribute to the nation’s overall infrastructure,” Azman said in a statement.
“To strengthen TNB’s non-regulated business as well as achieve our growth aspiration, TNB will continue to explore and identify growth opportunities, locally and abroad, which are value-accretive and able to provide favourable returns to the company and our shareholders,” he added.
TNB said its group performance for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2018 is expected to remain stable in tandem with the robust outlook on Malaysia’s economy.
“The Malaysian economy is expected to remain favourable in 2018 ... as such, unit electricity demand growth is expected to remain stable,” TNB said in its filing with Bursa Malaysia.
“Continual implementation of the IBR in the second regulatory period (2018–2020) will also allow better earnings predictability for TNB, as fuel cost risks are mitigat- ed,” it explained.
Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings yesterday upgraded TNB’s long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings to “A-” from “BBB+”, with a “stable” outlook.
The international rating agency also upgraded TNB’s foreign and local currency senior unsecured ratings to “A-” from “BBB+”.
Fitch said TNB’s credit profile was equalised to that of Malaysia’s “A-” ratings, with a stable outlook, to reflect the group’s strong linkages with the sovereign.