TUESDAY, APRIL 26 KUALA LUMPUR- Petronas Gas Bhd holds post annual general meeting press conference at Mandarin Oriental Hotel at 1145 (0345 GMT); KUALA LUMPUR- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak presents GTP-ETP Annual Report at Angkasapuri at 2030 (1230 GMT)
KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Gas Bhd
earnings rose to nearly RM2bil in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2015 boosted by a one-off recognition of deferred tax asset (DTA) while it expects its agreements and utilities to underpin its steady performance for 2016.
It announced a dividend of 17 sen per share compared with 15 sen a year ago. For FY15, the total dividends were 60 sen compared with 55 sen a year ago.
Petronas Gas said it expected a challenging economic environment. However, it envisaged its steady performance to continue, backed by its solid business models under gas processing agreement, gas transportation agreements and regasification service agreement signed with its parent, Petroliam Nasional Bhd.
As for its utilities segment, it said the performance would hinge on demand from petrochemical customers.
Earnings in FY15 rose 7.8% to RM1.98bil from RM1.84bil in FY14 despite lower profit before tax. The higher earnings were due to lower tax expense due to recognition of DTA arising from the investment tax allowance (ITA) and reinvestment allowance (RA) granted for plant rejuvenation and revamp project totalling RM443.1mil.
“Excluding impact of tax incentives and forex, profit for the year increased by RM1.6mil or 0.1% in line with higher revenue and other income,” it said.
Petronas Gas said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were lower by 10.8% in line with lower profit before taxation. Excluding the impact of forex, its EBITDA was lower by 6.1%.
Revenue for the year increased by a marginal 1.5% to RM4.45bil from RM4.39bil, contributed by higher gas processing and gas transportation revenue in line with higher reservation charge and higher capacity booking by Petronas.
Profit before taxation (PBT) was RM2bil, a decrease of 15% from the RM2.35bil a year ago year.
The lower PBT was mainly due to lower share of profit after tax from joint ventures as a result of one-off recognition of DTA arising from investment tax allowance (ITA) granted for Kimanis Power Plant (KPP) in the corresponding year as well as higher operating costs and unrealised foreign exchange (forex) loss on US$ finance lease liabilities during the year, it explained.
In the fourth quarter, its earnings fell 27.4% to RM424.49mil from RM571.28mil in line with lower share of profit from joint ventures and higher operating costs.
Revenue was up 2.3% to RM1.136bil from RM1.111bil mainly due to higher gas processing revenue in line with higher performance based structure (PBS) income and higher regasification revenue attributed to higher storage fees.
Earnings per share were 20.95 sen compared with 28.87 sen.
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