Hot Stock Icapital.biz gains 2% on 4Q profit surge

Hot Stock Icapital.biz gains 2% on 4Q profit surge
Business & Markets 2013
Written by Kamarul Anwar of theedgemalaysia.com
Wednesday, 03 July 2013 10:45

KUALA LUMPUR (July 3): Investors chased shares of Icapital.biz Bhd after the only listed closed-end fund in Malaysia reported a 26-fold in its fourth quarter earnings due to the disposal of securities.

At 10:31 am, ICapital.biz was up four sen or 1.67% to RM2.43 with a trade volume of 730,200. The counter had a trading range of RM2.42 and RM2.46.

ICapital.Biz yesterday reported its net profit for the final three months of financial year ended May 31, 2013 (4QFY13) was RM47.12 million on revenue of RM49.68 million. The net profit was more than 27 times higher than the previous corresponding quarter’s RM1.71 million, with revenue at RM4.59 million.

The fund explained in its Bursa Malaysia filing that the major jump in earnings was due to gains from disposal of securities.

The disposal also brought a growth in its full-year earnings. In FY13, ICapital.iz’s net earnings came to RM56.81 million, almost four times greater than the previous year’s RM15.73 million. Its revenue was RM65.95 million against FY12’s RM24.82 million.

“As the company is a closed-end fund, a better indication of its performance would be the movement of its net asset value (NAV). The NAV per share as at May 31, 2013 was RM2.99, compared with RM2.86 as at May 31, 2012,” said ICapital.biz.