KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Gas's earnings rose 4.3% to RM483.22mil in the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 underpinned by higher revenue.
It said on Thursday the earnings were an improvement from RM463.23mil a year ago.
Profit for the quarter increased by 9.1% or RM42.2mil to RM505.4mil on the back of higher revenue, negated by lower share of profit from a joint venture company and higher finance cost.
The higher finance costs was due to discontinued capitalisation of interest expense following operationalisation of the Group’s new LNG regasification terminal.
Petronas Gas's revenue rose at a stronger pace of 15.5% to RM1.35bil from RM1.17bil mainly contributed by the group’s new liquified natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal in Pengerang, Johor which started commercial operations in November 2017.
Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was also higher by 13.8% at RM928.4 million.
Earnings per share were 24.42 sen compared with 23.21 sen. It declared an interim dividend of 16 sen compared with 15 sen a year ago.
Commenting on its operations, Petronas Gas said its gas processing, transportation and regasification plants continued to perform well above 99% reliability.
Gas processing’s liquid plant extraction performance continued to exceed targets, contributing towards higher performance based structure versus a year ago.
The utilities segment recorded favourable selling price in line with upward fuel gas price revision.