By FARA AISYAH / Pic By MUHD AMIN NAHARUL

MALAKOFF Corp Bhd’s Tanjung Bin Energy Sdn Bhd power plant (TBE) in Pontian, Johor, was not affected by a fire which occurred on site yesterday morning.

Malakoff in a statement described the incident as “isolated”, which involved only the belt conveyor that carries coal to the power plant and it does not affect the 1,000MW power plant itself.

The company said the Fire and Rescue Department was deployed on the scene and the fire was contained within one hour.

“The situation is under control and all relevant authorities have been informed and an investigation is still ongoing.

The incident is not expected to affect the operations of TBE as it is currently undergoing a scheduled outage from March 31, 2019, to June 9, 2019.

“The fire incident did not affect the operations of the adjacent 2,100MW Tanjung Bin Power Plant,” the statement read.

TBE was the main contributor for Malakoff’s 187.7% increase in net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2018.

The power producer company’s profit for the quarter surged to RM85.48 million from RM29.7 million in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the three month period also rose 5.2% to RM1.89 billion from RM1.79 billion previously.

Malakoff noted that besides the TBE plant, other factors that contributed to the performance were lower depreciation of inspection costs, reduced operation and maintenance costs, lower net finance costs and higher contributions from associates investments.

For the full year of 2018, Malakoff registered a net profit of RM274.43 million, lower than the RM295.93 million recorded in 2017.

Revenue for the 12 months, however, rose 3.1% to RM7.35 billion from RM7.13 billion previously.

The group stated that the decrease in profit was due to lower capacity payment recorded by Segari Energy Ventures Sdn Bhd (SEV), given the tariff reduction and absence of TBE’s compensation payment received from the dispute settlement with Japan’s IHI Corp over its boiler failure.

Meanwhile, the revenue increased as a result of higher energy payment recorded by both its coal plants. The hike in natural gas tariff, however, was partially offset by SEV’s lower capacity payment.

In February, Malakoff CEO Datuk Ahmad Fuaad Mohd Kenali said the group will continue to focus on improving the reliability and efficiency of its assets, especially the TBE’s power plant.

“The plant is scheduled for maintenance and rectification works in the 1Q and 2Q of this year, to address and resolve its operational challenges.

“In line with the government’s greater push for renewable energy (RE), Malakoff is currently exploring opportunities in the RE sector, particularly on large-scale solar (LSS), hydro, biogas and waste-toenergy projects.

“The group will also be participating in the government’s open tender for the third round of the 500MW LSS3 project which was announced recently,” he said.

The counter closed one sen or 0.56% higher at 91 sen yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM4.42 billion.