Westports Holdings' net profit for the first quarter ended March 31 surged to US$33.52 million, compared with $24.22 million posted in the same quarter last year, as container output rose and savings in management fees improved margins.
While earnings rose 38.3 percent, revenue increased by only 4.1 percent to $111.61 million, reported Business Times Malaysia.
"The container throughput increased by 12 percent from 1.7 million TEUs to 1.9 million TEUs," it said.
The 25 percent increase in pre-tax profit in the first quarter was from an improvement in container throughput and savings of the management fee from its termination of management services agreement.
On a normalised basis, after excluding the management fee, the profit before tax grew by 10 percent, it said.
Going forward, Westports is expecting a high single-digit growth for container volume this year, driven by both the transhipment business and the import and export segments.
"To support the growth, we have recently completed the construction of the container terminal 7 (CT7). Measuring 600m in quay length, the CT7 will be fully operational by year-end with the gradual delivery of seven high specifications ship-to-shore cranes," it said.
Once the CT7 is fully operational, the group's handling capacity is expected to increase from 9.5 million TEUs to about 11.0 million TEUs per year, said Westports.
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