KUALA LUMPUR: Despite posting stronger earnings for the first quarter, Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd saw its shares drop in early trade Thursday.

       The counter fell 2.7%, or 2.5 sen to 90 sen at 9.40am. It has risen over 52% so far this year.

       Hibiscus saw its net profit grow more than four-fold to RM41.52mil in the first quarter ended Sept 30, from RM10.03mil a year earlier.

       Its revenue for the quarter surged 70% to RM246.69mil compared with RM145.49mil previously.

       “Although the results accounted for 16.8% and 19.1% of our and consensus full-year estimates respectively, we deem it in line as we expect better performance for the remaining quarters,” PublicInvest said.

       The research house believed that Hibiscus’ earnings would improve in the coming quarters given the favourable oil prices at above US$80 per barrel currently and earnings consolidation from Repsol assets from 2HFY22 onwards.

       “Earnings are expected to grow by more than 100% year-on-year. We understand that the progress of Repsol assets acquisition is on track, pending the regulatory approval from Petronas and PetroVietnam which was targeted this month, as well as approval by the shareholders at an EGM tentatively in mid-Dec this year,” PublicInvest said.

       The research house has affirmed its “outperform” call for Hibiscus with an unchanged target price of RM1.05.