Kuala Lumpur, 6th May 2020
Westports Holdings Berhad (“Westports” or the “Company”) has announced its financial results for the 1st Quarter of 2020. At the top-line, the Company’s total revenue improved to RM473 million but some of the increase was attributable to construction activities arising from the development work on a new jetty and CT9 container yard Zone Z. At the bottom line, after tax provision of RM49 million or an effective tax rate of 24%, Westports reported a Profit After Tax of RM153 million.
Datuk Ruben Emir Gnanalingam, Group Managing Director of Westports, cautioned that “Although Westports container volume is only slightly lower in the 1st Quarter of 2020, we expect the major effects of the Covid-19 pandemic to hit us in April and continue throughout the 2nd Quarter of 2020. Malaysia, Singapore, South East Asia, and countries further abroad, from India to the European Union and North America, have various lockdown arrangements or movement restrictions in the 2nd Quarter of 2020 that would have severely curtailed economic activities from consumption to investments to production related activities. This reduction in consumption and capital expenditure at this scale is bound have an impact on all ports worldwide”.
Datuk Ruben guided that “while we are hopeful for some recovery in the second half of the year, the Company does not expect container throughput to register an overall increase for the year 2020. The severity of the volume contraction would depend on how protracted the Covid-19 pandemic is going to be and how social and economic activities adjust to a post-lockdown world. The world is unlikely to be able to consume in the way it used to and it might take a while for it to get to the consumption levels of 2019”.
The Group Managing Director concluded that “Westports has contributed RM2.6 million for Covid-19 related support thus far in 2020. These contributions were mostly allocated towards assisting the front-line health care workers with medical equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE) and also towards assisting families to stay home throughout the movement control order by the Government of Malaysia”.
Key Highlights:
- Westports handled marginally lower container throughput of 2.52 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (“TEU”) in the 1st Quarter of 2020 with a noticeable reduction in transhipment containers of 8% to 1.58 million TEUs while gateway volume was at 0.94 million TEUs.
- Despite lower container volume, Westports has invested RM78 million in capital expenditure during the 1st Quarter of 2020 to enhance its container and conventional operations.
- At the bottom line, after the tax provision of RM49 million or an effective tax rate of 24%, Westports reported a Profit After Tax of RM153 million.
- To-date, Westports has contributed RM2.6 million on coronavirus disease (“Covid-19”) related assistance.
