PETALING JAYA: MISC Bhd’s net profit rose 55.3% to RM401mil in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2021 from RM258.3mil in the corresponding quarter last year, thanks to a higher contribution from the offshore business and LNG Asset Solutions segments.
The board of directors declared a third interim dividend of seven sen per share going ex on Dec 2, 2021, and payable on Dec 14, 2021.
During the quarter in review, the group’s revenue rose 30.7% to RM2.69bil from RM2.06bil due to income recognition from the conversion of a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.
In a statement, MISC said there were also higher earning days from the deliveries of six very large ethane carriers since the fourth quarter of 2020, which contributed to the increase in LNG Asset Solutions’ revenue.
In other segments, the marine and heavy engineering business recorded higher revenue from increased activities, although this was partially offset by the absence of conversion work in the marine sub-segment.
MISC LNG tanker Camellia
The petroleum and product shipping segment contributed lower revenue due to lower freight rates and lower earning days from vessel disposal and redeliveries.
On the group’s prospects, MISC president and group CEO Datuk Yee Yang Chien said oil and gas demand remained on a rising trend, while the global economy appeared to continuously recover to pre-pandemic levels.
“We are cautiously optimistic that these fundamentals will remain in the fourth quarter and into the year 2022 while we look forward to a strong finish to the financial year.
“Moving deeper into post-pandemic economic recovery, we are positioned well to execute our long-term strategy for profitable growth as we advance towards our goals for a decarbonised future,” he added.
Year-to-date, MISC posted a net profit of RM1.37bil, compared to a net loss of RM599mil in the nine months to September 2020.Cumulative revenue stood at RM7.59bil, compared to RM6.76bil previously.
AmInvestment Bank Research has maintained its “buy” call on MISC, with an unchanged sum-of-parts-based fair value of RM7.75, which reflects a premium of 3% from the brokerage’s four-star ESG rating.
The brokerage said in its report yesterday that it expected MISC to see modest improvement to petroleum tanker rates as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies or Opec+ plans to raise production levels by two million barrels from August to December 2021 amid the winter season, which is usually the peak tanker cycle.
Together with the delivery of six dynamic positioning shuttle tankers and two very large crude carriers next year, this is expected to support MISC’s earnings growth prospects for 2022, AmInvestment Bank said.