KUALA LUMPUR: VS Industry Bhd sees its net profit more than triple to RM36.8mil in the fourth quarter ended July 31, compared with RM10.9mil in the same period last year, helped by higher sales orders from existing key customers.

Its revenue for the quarter surged 77.4% to RM983.4mil against RM554.2mil a year ago. Earnings per share (EPS) for the period rose to 3.08 sen compared with 0.94 sen previously.

VS Industry has declared a fourth interim single tier dividend of 1.0 sen per ordinary share amounting to RM12.1mil and will be paid on Oct 27 to shareholders whose names appear on the company’s record of depositors on Oct 16. Its total dividend per share for the financial year ended July 31 is 5.9 sen

VS Industry said the improved earnings for the current quarter and cumulative quarter was mainly attributable to higher sales orders from existing key customers coupled with net foreign exchange gain.

For the full financial year ended July 31 (FY17) , VS Industry’s net profit rose to RM156.3mil, or EPS of 13.23 sen from RM117.9mil, or 10.15 sen EPS.

Its posted a record revenue of RM3.28bil, up 50.8% from RM2.17bil last year.

VS Industry said it had received substantially higher box-build orders from key customers, particularly during the second half of FY17.

“The trend of rising orders is expected to sustain going into the next financial year. To cope with the potential new orders from existing and new customers, the group has added more production space by constructing a new factory cum warehouse,” it said.

On its operations in China, the group’s Hong Kong listed subsidiary, V.S. International Group Ltd has recently completed a rights issue raising proceeds of HK$105.8mil which shall be used to expand the operations in China and tap into its growing domestic sales.

“Prospects of the group remain positive underpinned by factors mentioned above. Nevertheless, the Group is also cognizant of the challenges at the macro-environment level, which include fluctuations in US dollar/ ringgit foreign exchange rate and changes in regulations which may impact operating costs,” VS Industry said, adding that the board was optimistic that the group would achieve better performance for the next financial year.

In a separate filing, VS Industry said it underwent a revaluation exercise on the properties net of VS and its subsidiaries. The resulting net revaluation surplus arising from the revaluation of RM16.94mil has been incorporated in the fourth quarter unaudited financial results of VS for the year ended July 31.