Thursday 28 January 2010

Hartalega 3Q net profit up 67% to RM37m

Hartalega 3Q net profit up 67% to RM37m
Written by Joseph Chin
Thursday, 28 January 2010 18:44

KUALA LUMPUR: HARTALEGA HOLDINGS BHD []'s earnings rose 67% to RM37.2 million in the third quarter ended Dec 31, 2009 from RM22.23 million a year ago, boosted by higher demand for its gloves.

It said on Thursday, Jan 28 that revenue rose 24.8% to RM148.59 million from RM119.05 million. Earnings per share were 15.35 sen compared with 9.17 sen. It declared five sen dividend per share.

"The significant achievement in revenue and profit before tax is in line with the group's continuous expansion in production capacity, increase in demand and more efficient production process, higher premium nitrile gloves, lower synthetic and natural latex price and favourable exchange rate," it said.

Hartalega said demand for gloves surged substantially due to the outbreak of H1N1, resulted in tight supply for both synthetic and natural latex gloves.

"We have started to build another plant with 10 new advanced high capacity glove production lines in June 2009 and targeted to commission two of the production lines by end of the financial year.

"With continuous growth in demand for gloves from the healthcare and food sector, the group has a positive outlook," it said.

The group's products are sold to the health care industry. It said glove consumption was inelastic in the medical environment because the usage of glove is mandatory for disease control.

It added its nitrile synthetic glove was well accepted by the end users due to it high quality and elastic PROPERTIES [] that mimic that of a natural rubber glove.

"Our protein free and competitive priced nitrile glove has made it more affordable for the acute health care industry to continue switching from the natural rubber to our synthetic nitrile glove to avoid the protein allergy problem," it said.


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