Malaysia’s halal-certified Pharmaniaga Q2 profit up 72 pct on Indonesia demand

Malaysia’s Pharmaniaga posted a 72.1 per cent surge in profit for the three months ending June 30 mainly due to stronger demand in Indonesia.

The pharmaceutical company earned 9.281 million ringgit ($2.2 million) in profit attributable to shareholders in Q2 compared to 5.394 million ringgit for the same period in 2018, it reported in a bourse filing on Friday.

It said profit grew despite increased marketing and promotional expenses, and higher financial costs. It was propped up by lower corporate tax expense.

Its Q2 revenue was up 3.3 per cent to 602 million ringgit compared with 583 million ringgit for the previous year’s corresponding quarter.

However, the Group’s net profit for Q2 was 52.7 per cent lower than the 19.617 million ringgit it earned in the first quarter of the year.

It attributed the lower result to “reduced overall demand from both concession and non-concession businesses in Malaysia and Indonesia.”

It finished the first half of 2019 with a 25.75 per cent increase in net profit to 28.9 million ringgit from 22.98 million ringgit a year earlier.

This was backed by a revenue growth of 15.6 per cent to 1.387 billion ringgit from 1.2 billion ringgit in the corresponding period in 2018.

INDONESIA ‘KEY’

Pharmaniaga said it will expand its product portfolio to cater to “evolving healthcare needs via research and development drive” based on its positive long-term outlook on the healthcare industry.

“In tandem, the Group continues to step up its global presence, particularly in Indonesia which remains a key growth area,” it said.

Pharmaniaga Manufacturing and Pharmaniaga Lifescience have a wide range of halal-certified products, from menstrual tablets to oral rehydration salts to sodium bicarbonate injections, according to records with national halal certifier JAKIM (Department of Islamic Development Malaysia).

($1 = 4.2067 Malaysian ringgit)

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