Comintel Corp cautious about industry’s prospects

PETALING JAYA: Comintel Corp Bhd remains cautious about the recovery and growth of the property market and construction industry, for its financial year ending Jan 31, 2023 (FY23).

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the Practice Note 17 group said as the Malaysian economy recovers after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the increase in the minimum wage, shortage of skilled labour, adverse fluctuations in building materials prices, increase in oil prices and rising logistic costs could adversely affect the group’s profitability.

Meanwhile, Comintel noted that its construction business segment, contributed entirely by wholly owned subsidiary Total Package Work Sdn Bhd (TPW), is expected to continue to deliver positive results and improve the group’s turnover and profitability moving forward.

As at end-july, its outstanding order book stood at Rm376.8mil.

Comintel added that in its second financial quarter ended July 31, 2022 (2Q23), its construction business segment secured two jobs valued at Rm95.7mil from Mightyprop Sdn Bhd as well as two revised jobs totalling Rm275.4mil (initial total contract sum was Rm161.6mil) from Binastra Construction (M) Sdn Bhd.

For 2Q23, Comintel posted a Rm1.57mil net profit compared with RM296,000 net loss, while revenue jumped to Rm22.6mil compared with RM531,000 a year earlier.

Earnings per share was 1.12 sen versus loss per share of 0.21 sen a year earlier.

The group said the much improved financial results was mainly due to TPW, as it posted a Rm22.1mil revenue and profit before tax of Rm3.1mil in 2Q23.

However, its system integration and maintenance service business segment posted a loss before tax of RM400,000.

For its first financial half, Comintel posted a Rm4.61mil net profit compared with a Rm1.86mil net loss, while revenue jumped to nearly Rm50mil compared with RM896,000 a year earlier.

Earnings per share was 3.29 sen versus loss per share of 1.33 sen a year earlier.