Malaysia Airports Q1 net profit surges to RM444.6m

Pic taken from MAHB Facebook

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) saw its net profit surge to RM444.59mil in the first quarter ended March 31. 2018 due to unrealised gain on the fair value of investment in GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL) of RM258.4mil.

MAHB announced on Monday that its net profit jumped 590% from RM64.28mil a year ago. Its profit before tax surged 359.4% to RM472.7mil from RM102.9mil.

The group recorded a profit before tax of RM472.7mil, up 360% on-year.

MAHB said cost has increased by 3.5% or RM36.6mil on-year. Included in the cost in current quarter was construction cost in relation to the construction of the boarding hall expansion of Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISGIA) amounting to RM25.8mil.

The profit before tax of the Malaysian operations increased by 166.8% to RM542.7mil. Turkey posted a loss before tax of RM76.5mil, while the Qatari operations recorded a profit before tax of RM6.5mil.

Its revenue increased by 11.1% to RM1.21bil from RM1.09bil. Earnings per share was at 25.9 sen compared with 3.08 sen.

MAHB said revenue from its airport operations grew by 12.2% to RM1.143bil, mainly driven by both the aeronautical and non-aeronautical segments.

The Group’s revenue for the current quarter under review grew 11.2% over the corresponding quarter last year to RM1.21bil.
 
“Airport operations recorded revenue growth of 12.2% to RM1.14bil, mainly driven by both the aeronautical and non-aeronautical segment. Included in the airport operation’s revenue in the current quarter was construction revenue of RM25.8mil from Turkey operations. The construction revenue was recognised in relation to the construction of the boarding hall expansion of ISGIA,” it said.
 
MAHB's aeronautical segment grew 11.7% to RM588.4mil on-year. Malaysia operations recorded passenger growth of 3.4% (international: 10.2%, domestic: -3.4% growth) to 24.4 million passengers versus 23.6 million passengers a year ago. 

“The growth in international passenger traffic was contributed by four regional international airports performing exceptionally well in March 2018,” it said.
 
The passenger traffic for the Turkey operations increased by 18.2% to 7.8 million passengers from the 6.6 million passengers a year ago. 

Both international and domestic traffic increased by 19.0% and 17.8% respectively. 

The non-aeronautical segment also recorded almost equally strong revenue growth of 7.6% to RM528.9mil, driven by stronger sales registered by the concessionaires and retailers. 

Overall, Malaysia operations recorded revenue of RM908.3mil with growth of 8.8%. Turkey operations recorded revenue growth of 22.3% to RM272.7mil. However, Qatar operations recorded a slight decline in revenue by 1.1% to RM34.8mil.