KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 ― Westports Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2019, rose to RM159.23 million from RM142.32 million in the same period last year.
Revenue increased to RM460.43 million from RM417.55 million.
Westports in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today said the improvement was attributable to higher container volume handled and stable reported cost of sales under the new accounting rules, Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards 16 (MFRS 16).
For the nine-month period, the port operator’s net profit jumped to RM465.45 million from RM387.93 million and revenue rose to RM1.33 billion from RM1.19 billion.
Group managing director Datuk Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said the port operator had sustained its favourable container throughput growth momentum against a backdrop of moderate industry expansion rate due to strong support from clients, including liners under the Ocean Alliance, as the latter used Westports as one of the transhipment hubs in South East Asia.
“The supportive growth at the Intra-Asia segment also provided a broad-base momentum to enable the company to attain its container volume growth of 16 per cent, which is well above the industry’s average,” he added.
He said for vessel calls in 2019, the company accommodated a greater proportion of ultra large container vessels (ULCV) at its berths, especially the newer wharves built in recent years, as the liner industry deployed ever more and ever bigger container vessels.
Going forward, he said the company is expecting to achieve a double-digit percentage growth rate over 2018.
“To support our clients’ growth and the industry’s trend of deploying ever larger ULCV, Westports is planning for a multi-billion container terminal expansion that would double our total terminal handling capacity,” Ruben said.
He also said the significant investments required would be funded by Westports and financing raised from the capital markets.
“Westports expanded facilities will also further strengthen Port Klang’s role as the preeminent port for the nation’s gateway trade and also reinforce its terminal as one of the main transhipment hubs in the South East Asia region for international container shipping alliances,” he added. ― Bernama
