Hartalega 1Q net profit doubles to RM26m

Written by The Edge Financial Daily
Friday, 14 August 2009 20:34

KUALA LUMPUR: HARTALEGA HOLDINGS BHD [ HARTA 5.200 -0.060 (-1.141%) ]'s net profit in the first quarter ended June 30, 2009 doubled to RM26.37 million from RM12.89 million a year ago.

Announcing the strong set of results on Aug 14, it said earnings were boosted by more efficient production process and lower price of raw material for both synthetic and natural latex.

Revenue rose 42.7% to RM125.34 million from RM37.50 million. Pre-tax profit jumped 120.9% to RM32.70 million from RM14.80 million. Earnings per share were 10.88 sen versus 5.32 sen.

It said quarter-on-quarter, the group's sales revenue increased by 42.7% and pre-tax profit increased by 120.9%.

"The significant achievement in revenue and profit before tax is in line with the group's continuous expansion in production capacity, higher nitrile sales mix, and improvement in production process, lower synthetic and natural latex price and favourable exchange rate," it said.

On the prospects, it said the products were sold to the health care Industry. Glove consumption is inelastic in the medical environment because the usage of glove is mandatory for disease control.

"Our nitrile synthetic glove was well accepted by the end users due to it high quality and elastic PROPERTIES [ PROPERTIES 804.040 -5.180 (-0.640%) Stock Summary
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] that mimic that of a natural rubber glove. Our protein free and competitive priced nitrile glove has made it more affordable for the acute health care industry to continue switching from the natural rubber to our synthetic nitrile glove to avoid the protein allergy problem," it said.