Gamuda's 2Q profit climbs 9.8% as overseas earnings surge; first half earnings hit all-time high on highway sale gain

• Gamuda is expecting its performance this year to be driven by property sales, a pick up in work progress of the Sydney Metro West-Western Tunnelling Package, the Coffs Harbour Bypass and the M1 Motorway Extension projects in Australia, following the sale of its highway assets to Amanat Lebuhraya Rakyat.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 23): Gamuda Bhd posted a net profit of RM194.62 million for its second quarter ended Jan 31, 2023 (2QFY2023), up 9.88% from RM177.13 million in 2QFY2022, as stronger construction and property earnings filled in the void of its highway earnings following the divestments of its four highways last year.

"Overseas earnings tripled to contribute half of overall earnings compared to 22% previously as our overseas projects picked up pace," Gamuda said in its bourse filing.

Quarterly revenue climbed 18.39% to RM1.44 billion from RM1.22 billion. Earnings per share rose to 7.46 sen from 7.05 sen. No dividend was declared.

For the first half of FY2023, Gamuda's net profit hit an all-time high of RM1.36 billion, over four times the RM329.5 million it made in the first half of FY2022, boosted by a one-off cash gain of RM1 billion on the divestment of its highways in October 2022. Revenue jumped 43.98% to RM2.75 billion from RM1.91 billion.

"Excluding this one-off gain, our core earnings rose 17% to RM385 million for the first half of this year, compared with last year's first half earnings of RM329 million, on the back of stronger earnings from construction and property divisions. Overseas earnings surged to contribute 38% of overall core earnings compared with 18% previously, as our overseas projects picked up pace," it said.

Earnings per share for the cumulative period rose to 52.56 sen from 13.11 sen.

Gamuda is expecting its performance this year to be driven by property sales, a pick up in work progress of the Sydney Metro West-Western Tunnelling Package, the Coffs Harbour Bypass and the M1 Motorway Extension projects in Australia, following the sale of its highway assets to Amanat Lebuhraya Rakyat.

"Moving forward, the resilience of the Group is underpinned by its large construction order book of nearly RM21 billion (including A$2 billion orderbook boost from the imminent completion of the acquisition of Downer Transport Projects in Australia) and unbilled property sales of RM5.4 billion. On top of that the group has a healthy balance sheet with almost zero net gearing," it said.

Gamuda shares closed 6 sen or 1.47% higher at RM4.14 on Thursday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM11.01 billion.