Riverstone Holdings recorded earnings of RM144.7 million ($42.9 million), some 54.6% higher than RM93.6 million in the previous year.
This came on the back of revenue increasing by 7.4% y-o-y to RM496.4 million, primarily fuelled by recovering demand for both cleanroom and healthcare gloves.
Cost of sales dropped 11.3% y-o-y to RM299.7 million.
Thanks to lower cost of sales, better product mix and higher average selling price, gross profit came up to RM196.7 million, 55.2% higher than the previous year.
Gross profit margin hence saw a 12.2 percentage points improvement to 39.6% from 27.4% last year.
A second interim dividend of 4.0 sen has been declared. Together with the dividend declared in 1QFY2024, the group’s total dividend payout stands at 82.0%.
See also: Marco Polo Marine reports lower 2HFY2024 earnings of $10.7 mil, down 42% y-o-y
Looking ahead, the global semiconductor manufacturing industry projected a 6% y-o-y capacity expansion in 2024 and a 7% gain in 2025 to keep pace with unremitting growth in demand for high performance chips.
Wong Teek Son, executive chairman and CEO of Riverstone says: “The broad-based recovery in the global semiconductor manufacturing sector continues to bode well for us. We have seen a strong order flow for our core cleanroom gloves since the end of 2023. With continuous R&D to optimise our product specifications and new production lines expected to be progressively commissioned by the end of 2024, we are well-positioned to meet the growing demand from both existing and prospective customers.”
Shares in Riverstone closed at 90 cents on Aug 6.
