Written by Joseph Chin
Monday, 22 June 2009 21:06
KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Land Bhd posted net loss of RM102.15 million for the financial year ended April 30, 2009, compared with net profit of RM1.11 billion in net profit a year ago due to lower revenue and the absence of exceptional gains.
It said on June 22 that the group's revenue and pre-tax profit were RM4.15 billion and RM238.5 million respectively as compared to a revenue and pre-tax profit of RM1.52 billion and RM1.12 billion respectively in FY08.
“The increase in the current year's revenue was mainly due to the higher revenue contribution from the gaming business arising from the full year consolidation effect of Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd (compared to the consolidation of only the fourth quarter results of BToto in the previous year).
“The lower pre-tax profit which was mainly attributed to the factors mentioned above, was partly mitigated by the higher pre-tax profit contribution from the gaming business,” it said.
In FY08, BLand reported a substantial pre-tax profit mainly resulting from the exceptional gains totalling RM1.17 billion (principally from the placement of 320 million units of 5% ICULS 1999/2009 and the disposal of various assets).
For the fourth quarter ended April 30, 2009, it posted net loss of RM53.98 million compared with net profit of RM631.67 million. Revenue fell to RM973.18 million compared with RM1 billion. Loss per share was 4.32 sen compared with earnings per share of 55.21 sen.
The lower revenue was mainly due to the lower contribution from the gaming business operated by Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd (STMSB), a principal subsidiary of BToto.
It said last year, STMSB benefited from the traditionally higher sales from the Chinese Lunar New Year festival that fell in February 2008.
BLand also said the hotels and resorts division of the Group also reported lower revenue mainly due to the prevailing economic crisis that had adversely affected the hospitality industry. Further, the property development division reported lower property sales mainly due to the soft property market.
The lower pre-tax profit in the current quarter under review was mainly due to lower revenue from the hotels and resorts business arising from lower room sales and lower property sales registered by the property development division.
Other factors were the impairment in values of certain investments in associated companies, jointly controlled entities and property, plant and equipment as well as quoted shares due to the stock market downturn.
It was also affected by higher share of losses of jointly controlled entities that the group had equity accounted for; and higher foreign exchange losses arising from translation.
In the previous year corresponding quarter, the group recorded a total net exceptional gain of RM580.5 million mainly arising from the placement of 150 million of 5% ICULS 1999/2009 amounting to approximately RM598.9 million.