Inch Kenneth Kajang Rubber reports profit increase in Q3

Inch Kenneth Kajang Rubber PLC Monday said it swung to a pretax profit in the third quarter of its financial year, after last year’s results were hit by a number of impairments.

The rubber company, which operates in Malaysia, posted a pretax profit of MYR2.9 million, compared with a loss of MYR17.3 million.

While its profit was buoyed by an increase in revenue to MYR5.7 million, from MYR4.7 million a year earlier, it swung to profit largely as a result of being hit by a total of just short of MYR13.0 million in impairments in the third quarter of last year.

For the year to date, the company said revenue year-on-year has almost doubled to MYR22.4 million, up from MYR11.4 million last year, while its pretax loss for the nine months period narrowed significantly to only MYR1.6 million, compared with CNY15.2 million in the first nine months of 2013.

The company said that revenue growth in the third quarter was mainly due to “aggressive sales” constant viscosity rubber blocks produced by its subsidiary in Thailand and an “aggressive internet marketing effort” from the tourism division.

“We expect that the manufacturing division will be at a lower loss by year end and the tourism division to record a profit,” the company said.

Shares in the company were last quoted at 15.00 pence.