By FARA AISYAH

Sunway Construction Group Bhd’s (SunCon) net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2018 (3Q18), rose 7.98% year-on-year (YoY) to RM36.41 million on a higher revenue.

The company posted a revenue of RM557.32 million for the three months, an increase of 13.42% YoY from the RM491.36 million recorded in 3Q17, with the growth contributed by both its construction and precast segments.

In an exchange filing on Monday, the group said its margin was, however, slightly lower in 3Q18 due to the precast segment.

The construction segment reported a revenue of RM524.1 million and a profit before tax of RM48.8 million in 3Q18 due to higher contribution from its civil division.

The precast segment posted a revenue of RM33.2 million and a loss before tax of RM1.9 million in 3Q18.

The division’s higher revenue during the three months was due to better progress from existing sales order, while the loss was due to current projects which yield low margins due to higher steel bar prices/content, coupled with stiff competition on pricing.

“We are still actively seeking both external and in-house jobs and we are confident of achieving our targeted new orders of RM1.5 billion for the year.  In addition, we will continue our effort to explore opportunities in Myanmar and India and hope to clinch our new contracts soon.

“We remain focused on delivering our orderbook in hand and will continue to improve our operational efficiency to further improveour margins,” its group MD Chung Soo Kiong said in a media release.

The group’s outstanding orderbook as at September 2018 amounted to RM5.2 billion, with a total of RM949 million in new orders in the first nine months of 2018, providing earnings visibility for the group for the next two years.

Subsequent to that, SunCon has secured two additional new orders amounting to RM405 million, which brings the total orders for the year to RM 1.4 billion to date.