Petronas Gas sees FY12 results lifted by disposal
KUCHING: Petronas Gas Bhd ( Petronas Gas) has seen its full year net profit for the financial year 2012 (FY12) being lifted by the disposal of its investments in Gas Malaysia Bhd (Gas Malaysia).
OSK Research Sdn Bhd analyst Danny Chan noted in a report on the group yesterday that revenue dipped by a marginal 2.2 per cent year on year (y- o-y) due to lower revenue contribution from its gas processing business (down 12 per cent y- o-y).
“However, core net profit grew 4.3 per cent y- o-y, lifted by a RM100 million gain arising from the partial disposal of its investment in Gas Malaysia via an initial public offering,” Chan highlighted.
“Stripping off the disposal gain, the group’s core net profit would have come in 2.2 per cent lower y- o-y.” Chan said Petronas Gas also declared a single tier final dividend of 35 sen per in respect of FY12, subjected to shareholders’ approval at the forthcoming annual general meeting.
“This amount, combined with the 15 sen interim dividend it paid in September 2012, will bring its total dividends for FY12 to 50 sen per share, which is 6.4 per cent higher than our initial forecast,” he added.
“This will represents a dividend payout of 70 per cent, with a yield of 2.7 per cent for 2012.”
Looking at the group’s performance segment by segment, an analyst from the research wing of MIDF Investment Bank Bhd (MIDF Research) Aaron Tan noted that the group’s gas processing division saw both segments’ revenue and operating profit declining 12.1 per cent y- o-y and 12.3 per cent y- o-y respectively.
“The lacklustre numbers were a result of lower performance based structure income resulting from lower export volume for propane and butane.
“The company however noted that the drop was partially supported by higher realised butane and propane prices,” Tan highlighted.
Meanwhile, Petronas Gas’ gas transportation segment saw throughput remaining favourable as higher transportation capacity booked by customers increased segment revenue and operating profit by a modest 4.8 per cent y- o-y and seven per cent y- o-y respectively.
Also, in line with the strong local economic growth, the group’s utilities division benefited from higher steam and electricity consumption by customers.
This, Tan added, was reflected in an increase in segment revenue and operating profit of 11.5 per cent y- o-y and 25 per cent y- o-y respectively.
Looking forward, other analysts were holding a realistic outlook on the postponement of the 530 million standard cubic feet per day
However, core net profit grew 4.3 per cent y-o-y, lifted by a RM100 million gain arising from the partial disposal of its investment in Gas Malaysia via an initial public offering. Danny Chan, OSK Research analyst
(mmscfd) Lekas regassification terminal ( RGT) despite Petronas Gas announcing this project to commence operations by the second quarter of 2013.
“We realistically expect actual commencement only when the pricing of natural gas has been settled,” AmResearch Sdn Bhd (AmResearch) highlighted in a separate report.
“As electricity prices are fixed until the first half of 2013, we have assumed that the Lekas RGT contribution to only start in 3Q13.” Besides the Lekas RGT, Petronas Gas was also involved in the RM1 billion Lahad Datu RGT to supply gas to Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s power plant by 2015, added AmResearch.
This was in addition to the RM60 billion Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development in Pengerang, Johor, which included a power generation capacity of 1,200 megawatt and an RGT project which could be much larger than the over RM2 billion Lekas RGT.
“We estimate that every additional RM1 billion in investments could raise Petronas Gas’ stock option price by 16 sen per share, assuming a project internal rate of return of nine per cent, equity rate of 10 per cent and a debt to equity ratio of 80: 20.”