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Food division’s revenue improved
slightly by 0.8% compared to last
year. PBT increased more than
seven-fold y-o-y mainly attributable
to forex gain of RM0.67 million
(FYE2018: forex loss of RM8.53
million). The division has made
good strides in expanding the
market base for a few of its product
segments. While there is still much
to be done, we are nonetheless
encouraged by the performance of
the division on this front.
Manufacturing division’s revenue
declined 4.3% to RM134.78 million
due to volume contraction in the
travel documents segment and
pricing pressures across some
of the other product segments.
We did signal a year ago that this
was going to be the case, and so
through management actions and
disciplined cost control, we have
managed to negate the dual impact
of lower demand and margins,
resulting in y-o-y improvement of
34.0% in its PBT contributions.
A more detailed review of
the results and the operating
performance for the year of each
of the Group’s business divisions is
presented on pages 37 to 57 of this
Annual Report.
Dividend
The Board is pleased to recommend
for shareholders’ approval a final
single-tier dividend of 9.0 sen per
share for the financial year ended
31 March 2019 at the forthcoming
Annual General Meeting. If approved
at the forthcoming Annual General
Meeting, the dividend will be paid
on 7 October 2019 to shareholders
whose names appear on the register
as at 18 September 2019. The
dividend paid out is approximately
42.3% of our Profit After Tax and
Non-Controlling Interests (PATANCI)
for this year.
Sustainability
We are fully aware of our
responsibilities as a corporate
citizen to create an environment
where all can prosper. Our
approach to sustainability is
therefore guided by this sense
of purpose i.e. to create value
for the long term, by managing
our business in a balanced and
responsible way. In seeking an
appropriate balance, we are
mindful that more often than
not, there are certain trade-
offs that need to be made. The
social license and influence
of stakeholders has grown
tremendously over the years and
we need to ensure that these are
properly addressed - especially
when social and environmental
concerns can affect the legal
license to operate. We have
brought this thinking to bear
in all our business dealings.
Stakeholder engagements are vital
for the Group; we have certainly
embraced that and it’s been
mission-critical and key strategic
advantage to our success to date.
I am happy to unveil our first
stand-alone Sustainability Report
as it marks an important step in
our sustainability journey. The
report, which has been prepared
in accordance with the Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI) Core
Option and Bursa Malaysia’s
requirements on sustainability
reporting to ensure it focuses on
our material issues, builds on prior
annual reporting and will give our
stakeholders greater information
about the Group’s sustainability
practices and performance.
performance
review
29