SIME Darby Bhd’s operations in China and Australia should continue to be positive points for the group’s 2021 financial year, according to Sime Darby CEO Jeffri Salim Davidson.
He noted that Australia has remained a strong area for the group, due to Sime Darby’s operations providing equipment for coal mines there. Jeffri shared that mining was considered an essential service during the pandemic lockdown.
Jeffri also noted that China had announced a 1 tril yuan infrastructure growth package.
“So, if China continues to build, demand for steel and coal will be positive and fairly solid.”
“If China is building infrastructure, hopefully they will use our machines, so this should be fairly positive,” said Jeffri at the group’s results briefing today.
Sime Darby saw a net profit of RM820 mil for its 2020 financial year ended June 30, which marks a 9.5% growth in net profit. This was attributed to the group’s industrial segment, which performed well in China and Australia, as well as robust BMW sales in its Motors division operations in China for the first half of FY20.
This, according to Sime Darby CFO Mustamir Mohamad, helped to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak and of the impairments made.
Revenue for the group for FY20 came in at RM36.9 bil, compared to FY19’s RM36.2 bil.
A second interim dividend of 7 sen and a special dividend of 1 sen was declared for FY20. This, including the earlier interim dividend of 2 sen, brings the total dividend for the year to 10 sen per share.
At the end of the trading day, Sime Darby’s shares were last done at RM2.19, up a sen, with 6.88 million shares traded. – Aug 27, 2020
