Not impressive, I am afraid, except for a few good companies (like Public Bank and Westports) and a few decent ones.
The totals for the year:
A few remarks:
- The second down year in a row
- The results are even worse than 2012, four years ago
- Counted in USD (an important consideration for international investors) it is much worse, in 2012-2014 the combined profit was about USD 18.5 Billion, in 2016 roughly 30% below that level
Ten companies started to report their 2017 profits, they are roughly similar to the 2016 profits. If there are no more large one-off write downs (like in the oil & gas industry), the combined profit in 2017 might be higher than 2016. But if that is enough to justify the historically high valuation of the Malaysian market, I doubt it. For that there has to be a consistent yearly growth of say on average 10% in net profits, something that seems to have been absent the last few years.
Thank you for the good analysis. Looking at the totality, the blue chips are losing steam to propel the growth of the Country. It's time for the Government to unleash the growth engine of SMEs.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words. I agree, with the blue chips disappointing and Petronas likewise due to the price of oil, growth has to come from the SMEs.
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