Malaysia’s MISC Berhad has achieved better earnings in the financial year 2015, helped by better performances of its shipping and energy business segments.
Net profit for 2015 was posted at MYR2.47bn ($596.65m), an increase of 12.3% from the gain of MYR2.2bn in 2014.
Revenue also rose by 17.3% year-on-year to MYR10.91bn due mainly to improved contributions at its energy related shipping and other energy business segments.
The energy related shipping segment saw operating profit rose 59.1% year-on-year to MYR2.38bn mainly from higher profit in the petroleum business and lower loss in the chemical business from operating a smaller fleet of ships.
The other energy business segment recorded a 16.8% year-on-year increase in operating profit to MYR448.79m due primarily from a full year finance lease income recognition of an FPSO unit, and slight higher profit in heavy engineering.
“The petroleum shipping segment is expected to continue enjoying the benefits of the market strength seen in 2015 into 2016, barring any material cutback in global oil production,” MISC stated, adding that the LNG shipping and offshore businesses will also continue to grow this year on the back of long term contracts.
“However, the outlook and prospects of the upstream oil and gas industry is projected to remain poor with the prolonged weakness in oil price,” the company commented.
“The cutback in E&P activities will continue to weigh heavily on the offshore construction activities for the heavy engineering segment. On a positive note, the segment’s marine repair business is expected to perform steadily and to a limited extent, cushion the weak performance of offshore construction business.”
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.