KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — Hartalega Holdings Bhd’s net profit increased to RM121.27 million in the third quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 (Q3) from RM119.75 million in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue in the quarter rose to RM796.55 million from RM723.39 million previously, mainly due to higher sales volume, it said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia.
For the first nine months period, Hartalega recorded a lower net profit of RM319.20 million from RM364.84 million, on the back of slightly higher revenue of RM2.15 billion from RM2.14 billion in the same period a year ago.
Moving forward, the company remained optimistic of the longer-term prospects, underpinned by growing demand for rubber gloves and the ongoing expansion of its Next Generation Integrated Glove Manufacturing Complex (NGC) in Sepang.
“The first line of Plant 6 was commissioned in January 2020 with the remaining production lines to come on stream progressively to cater for the rising demand. Plant 6 will have an annual installed capacity of 4.7 billion pieces once completed,” it said.
Meanwhile, Hartalega said Plant 7 was also in the expansion pipeline catering to small orders, focusing more on specialty products, and will have an annual installed capacity of 3.4 billion pieces.
With the progressive commissioning of Plant 6 and 7, Hartalega’s annual installed capacity is expected to increase to 44.7 billion pieces by its financial year ending March 31, 2020 (FY20) from the current 36.6 billion.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Hartalega declared a second single-tier interim dividend of 1.8 sen per share for FY20, as per the entitlement date on March 6, 2020 and payable on March 27, 2020.
Managing director Kuan Mun Leong said the demand growth was expected to continue particularly in the near-term given the ongoing 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in China.
“We are committed to playing our role effectively by ensuring timely delivery of glove shipments to China to aid efforts in controlling the outbreak. As part of our corporate social responsibility efforts, we have pledged to donate a total of 2.58 million pieces of gloves to this cause,” he added.
Kuan said the first glove shipment containing one million pieces is currently en route to China, while the remaining shipment of 1.58 million pieces will be shipped later this month for donation via Hartalega’s subsidiary, Mun China. — Bernama
