Petronas records the highest pre-tax profit

A-G’s report: 28 firms had profits totalling RM93bil in 2009

PETALING JAYA: More than half of the 47 Federal Government companies were profitable in 2009 with pre-tax profit totalling RM93.06bil.

According to the Auditor-General's Report, about 59.6% or 28 companies had been profitable. Of the companies, 14 had been profitable for three consecutive years up till 2009.

Among the top three companies with the highest pre-tax profit were Petronas at RM89.4bil, Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd at RM339.5mil and Cyberview Sdn Bhd at RM79.3bil.

The total pre-tax profit for the 28 companies totalled RM89.9bil in 2009, down from RM97.1bil in 2008.
Best performer: Petronas recorded a pre-tax profit of RM89.4bil in 2009.(Star pic - Petronas HQ)

As for the remaining 19 companies, they posted a total pre-tax loss of RM710mil.

Among the highest losses were from Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd and KTM Bhd at RM367.1mil and RM92.6mil respectively with high operational cost cited as the reason for their lacklustre financial performance.

Others were Halal Industry Development Sdn Bhd with a loss of RM14.6mil in 2009, compared with RM13.8mil loss a year before due to high operational and management cost.

Indah Water Consortium Sdn Bhd (IWK), the national sewerage company, was also in the red at RM33.3mil in 2009, down from a loss of RM131.4mil in 2008.

The reason for its loss was due to low sewerage tariff as well as the interest IWK had to pay for its Government support loan which had increased to RM110mil in 2009 from RM103mil in 2008.

The reduction in IWK's losses in 2009 was due to an increase in Government subsidy to the company at RM250mil in 2009 compared with RM150mil in 2008.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Venture Capital Management Sdn Bhd (MAVCAP) posted a loss of RM21.1mil in 2009 against a RM14.1mil loss in 2008 due to a decline in the company's revenue.

MAVCAP had also allocated RM15.6mil in 2009 for depreciation in investment value due to unimpressive performance of some of the companies it invested in.

On tax payment to the Government, 25 out of the 47 companies had paid their taxes amounting to RM30.38bil in 2009, up 20.1% from the previous year.

In terms of dividend payment to the Government, only 10 companies that were profitable had been paying dividend for three consecutive years up till 2009 totalling RM90.1bil.

The remaining 37 did not pay dividend.

A minimum of 10% dividend as capital repayment must be paid to stakeholders or the Government annually.