Tasek Corp Q3 earnings down 7% on cement price competition

KUALA LUMPUR: Cement manufacturer Tasek Corp Bhd suffered a 7.1% drop in earnings to RM21.5mil from RM23.1mil in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2014, despite revenue edging up 3.3% to RM148.7mil from RM143.9mil.

The company said this was mainly due to lower profit margins from the cement segment because of intense price competition in the market.

In addition, it also reported lower sales volume from the concrete segment, lower share of profit from the group's associated company and lower interest income.

Earnings per share came to 17.68 sen – lower than the 19.03 sen previously. 

In conjunction with the company’s 50th anniversary this year, Tasek has declared a special single-tier dividend of 50 sen per share, payable on Dec 8, 2014 with eligibility date set at Nov 19, 2014.

For the three quarters so far, earnings were up 16.3% to RM77.5mil from RM66.6mil in the same period last year, with revenue climbing 14.5% to RM483.1mil from RM422mil.

Tasek said the outlook for the fourth quarter was expected to remain positive with the MRT and LRT projects continuing to lead growth in the construction sector.