KUALA LUMPUR (March 18): Apollo Food Holdings Bhd’s net profit for its third quarter ended Jan 31, 2024 (3QFY2024) rose to RM30.24 million from RM10.82 million a year ago, lifted by gain on disposal, improved margins and higher domestic sales.

Quarterly earnings per share jumped to 37.8 sen, from 13.52 sen, in 3QFY2023. It declared a dividend of 50 sen per share for the quarter, bringing its year-to-date dividends to 70 sen per share — up from 25 sen per share for the entirety of FY2023.

The group recorded a gain on disposal of investment properties of RM18.6 million, Apollo said in its filing. Quarterly revenue rose 3.9% to RM73.85 million, from RM71.08 million, the filing showed.

For the nine months ended Jan 31 (9MFY2024), the one-off disposal gain helped Apollo book a net profit of RM47.83 million, up 92.5% or RM22.99 million, from RM24.84 million recorded in the same period last year.

The bottom line improvement exceeded the 0.68% increase in 9M revenue to RM198.18 million, from RM196.84 million.

“Without the gain on disposal of properties, our performance for the nine-month period was still ahead of last year,” Apollo said.

This was supported by product pricing strategies and owing to the strength of its recognisable brands, it said.

Looking ahead, Apollo said it will “explore expansion by developing new markets and new customer segments”, and plans to deepen its market penetration and increase its sales.

Shares of Apollo settled down three sen or 0.52% to close at RM5.77, giving it a market capitalisation of RM461.6 million. At its last close, the counter was trading with a dividend yield of 12.1%.