KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s net profit surged more than two-fold to RM1.2 billion for the third quarter ended September from RM501 million in the same period last year.
President and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said the growth was mainly attributable to higher sales of electricity, improved performance in TNB’s share of results of associates, additional other operating income in the period, as well as lower impairments.
TNB’s revenue was lower for the quarter at RM12.64 billion from RM13.07 billion a year ago.
For the first nine months, the utility giant’s revenue was, however, 2.4 per cent higher at RM38.76 billion, from RM37.85 billion a year ago.
Group net profit increased marginally to RM3.88 billion from RM3.86 billion in the nine months of 2018.
Sales in electricity for TNB increased 4.2 per cent in the nine-month period to RM36.93 billion, from RM35.43 billion in 2018.
TNB’s share of results of associates also grew with RM93.1 million revenue against a loss of RM183.9 million previously.
The share of associates reflects contribution from TNB’s investment portfolio, both locally and overseas.
Amir Hamzah said TNB’s United Kingdom portfolio performed better than anticipated while its investment in Turkey showed signs of recovery following a turnaround plan implementation.
TNB owns two renewable energy companies in the UK namely Vortex Solar (50 per cent stake) and Tenaga Wind Ventures (80 per cent stake), and a 30 per cent equity interest in GAMA Enerji in Turkey.
On TNB’s performance this year, Amir Hamzah expects it to remain stable.
He said TNB would leverage on its existing UK assets and market experience to build up a sizeable renewable energy portfolio by 2021 through acquisition of both brown and green field projects.
Meanwhile, Amir Hamzah said TNB’s corporate restructuring exercise announced in July 2019 would be a key enabler of its current strategic business plan to strengthen its position in anticipation of pending reforms to the Malaysian Electricity Supply Industry.
The restructuring exercise saw two wholly-owned subsidiaries were incorporated, namely TNB Power Generation Sdn Bhd (TPGSB) and TNB Retail Sdn Bhd (TRSB), in which TNB’s generation and retail businesses would be transferred to the respective companies.
TPGSB’s principal activities are the ownership, management and operation of domestic power plants, renewable energy generation business, power plant operation and maintenance business as well as dry bulk terminal operations business.
TRSB’s principal activities on the other hand are the sale of electricity to customers, collection of revenues from customers, the provision of customer services, operation of call management centres, green energy solution services and beyond the meter solution services.
