KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd (MHB) swung back to profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 (4QFY19), as its marine segment also turned positive on the back of improved revenue from higher dry docking services on liquefied petroleum gas vessels and conversion work.

Also helping the group was tax refunds of RM6.45 million in the current quarter.

MHB reported a net profit of RM9.28 million compared to a net loss of RM25.22 million for 4QFY18, marking its first profitable quarter since end-2017.

Earnings per share for the quarter stood at 0.6 sen for 4QFY19 against a loss per share of 1.6 sen for 4QFY18.

Quarterly revenue rose by a marginal 0.88% to RM275.64 million for 4QFY19 from RM273.24 million a year ago, dragged down by a 33.7% decline in heavy engineering revenue during the current quarter, mainly due to most ongoing projects being at their tail end while newly-secured ones were still at infancy stage.

In a statement yesterday, MHB said the marine segment recorded an operating profit of RM8.5 million for 4QFY19 compared to an operating loss of RM81.7 million a year ago in tandem with the revenue growth and lower unabsorbed overheads.

The better quarterly performance helped MHB narrow its net loss for full FY19 to RM34.22 million from RM122.69 million a year ago, while revenue rose 3.6% to RM1.01 billion from RM974.35 million.

On prospects, MHB managing director and chief executive officer Wan Mashitah Wan Abdullah Sani said the outlook is expected to remain uncertain in light of continuing sluggish global economic growth, geopolitical instability, oil demand disruptions, growth in US shale oil production and the intensifying Covid-19 outbreak.

“As such, the group remains prudent on the outlook for the heavy engineering business in the near term amid uncertainties surrounding the timing of capital spending by major oil and gas players,” she said.

Wan Mashitah said the group is also cautiously optimistic about the outlook for its marine business in view of the expected global liquefied natural gas expansion driven by an increase in exports from Qatar, Australia, Russia and the US to the Asia-Pacific market.

“We remain committed to replenishing our order book by expanding our footprint in various geographical areas and diversifying into new business opportunities. Efforts to ensure competitiveness of ongoing and future bids remain a key priority, in tandem with continuing focus on cost optimisation and improved execution and delivery of ongoing projects,” she added.