Lotte Chemical posts quarterly net profit of RM217mil

PETALING JAYA: Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd has posted a third-quarter net profit of RM216.89mil, down 5.8% from the same quarter last year on leaner margins.

In a filing with the stock exchange, Lotte Chemical said its revenue for Q3 ended Sept 30 rose 19.9% to RM2.42bil from RM2.02bil in the year-ago quarter due to an increase in its sales volume and selling prices.

“Profit after tax decreased by RM13mil from RM230.1mil to RM217.1mil and this was mitigated by a lower income tax expense due to overprovision of deferred tax expenses in the prior year,” it said.

In the olefins and derivative products segment, new plant capacity and product operations saw revenue jump 91% to RM596.7mil from RM311.4mil in the comparative quarter.

However, pre-tax profit slowed 31.8% to RM45.9mil.

Similarly, in the polyolefin department, revenue rose 6.8% to RM1.82bil in Q3 although the pre- tax profit fell 38% to RM125.3mil.

The group also posted a foreign exchange (forex) gain of RM18.7mil in the quarter under review after offsetting a forex loss of RM24.1mil from operations.

This excluded a forex gain of RM42.8mil arising from a revaluation of the group’s US-dollar initial public offering funds against the ringgit held for the Indonesian project’s capital injection.

For the three quarters to Sept 30, Lotte’s net profit rose 13.1% to RM776.11mil from RM686.08mil in the same period last year, while revenue grew 21% to RM6.91bil from RM5.71bil.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to RM1.15bil from RM1.1bil in the previous corresponding period.

Contributing factors to the higher earnings include an increase in forex gain, insurance proceeds receivable for gas turbine claims, lower property, plant and equipment write-offs as compared to 2017 and other non-operating income.