KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21): Berjaya Land Bhd's (BLand) net profit for the second quarter ended Oct 31, 2015 (2QFY16) jumped 23 times to RM208.3 million or 4.17 sen per share from RM8.97 million or 0.18 sen per share a year ago, mainly due to gain on disposal arising from the dilution of its stake in Berjaya Kyoto Development (S) Pte Ltd.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, BLand said the better earnings was also due to higher contribution from H.R Owen Plc and its property development and investment businesses.

This was, however, offset by lower profit reported by Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd (STMSB) and its hotels and resorts business arising from lower revenue due to lower average room rates.

Revenue for 2QFY16 rose 14.9% to RM1.62 billion from RM1.41 billion in 2QFY15.

For the cumulative six-month period (6MFY16), BLand's net profit increased 4.7 times to RM218.211 million or 4.37 sen per share from RM46.64 million or 0.94 sen per share in 6MFY15 for the same reasons.

Revenue for 6MFY16 was 11.1% higher at RM3.13 billion from RM2.82 billion in 6MFY15.

Moving forward, BLand is of the view that the operating performance of the group will continue to remain challenging in the remaining quarters of the financial year ending April 30, 2016.

"In view of the dampened domestic consumer spending caused by the negative economic sentiment and the goods and services tax incurred and being absorbed by STMSB as well as the weakened ringgit, the gaming business is expected to be challenging while maintaining our market share in the numbers forecast operator industry," it said.

"The performance of the hotels and resorts business is expected to remain satisfactory, while the focus of the property development business will be on its overseas development projects," BLand added.

BLand shares closed unchanged at 72 sen today, giving it a market value of RM3.59 billion.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)