PETALING JAYA: MR DIY Group Bhd is bullish on its long-term sustainable growth prospects, buoyed by steady development across all key metrics of the home improvement retailer.
The group said this was evident as its strong value-price proposition was relevant and resonated with the value-conscious Malaysian customer, while continuing to eye opportunities for growth investments through a measured store expansion strategy.
MR DIY released its financial results for its second quarter ended June 30 (2Q23) yesterday, registering a double-digit 11.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) jump in net profit to RM150.3mil, supported by a revenue which also rose 4.9% y-o-y to RM1.1bil.
The company pointed to a number of reasons for its strong performance.
Among them, positive contributions from new stores which saw an increase in the number of transactions by 13.1% y-o-y to 40.9 million for the quarter in review, with the decline in freight costs that had normalised to pre-lockdown levels also a factor.
Cumulatively, year-to-date (y-t-d) earnings recorded an even higher y-o-y surge of 18% to RM278mil compared to the RM235.7mil garnered in the corresponding period of last year, driven by a 9.8% y-o-y growth in revenue to RM2.1bil.
Aside from the increased revenue which led to better gross profit margins and the reduction in freight expenses, the price adjustment exercise carried out during the previous financial year also had a positive impact, MR DIY said in a stock exchange statement.
Quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) numbers were also looking good.
Net profit grew by 17.6% against the RM127.8mil achieved for the three months ended March 31, as sales also inched up marginally by 5% from RM1.05bil.
MR DIY said the improvement in its second fiscal quarter compared to the first was due to an increase in its number of stores and higher sales from the Hari Raya festive season.
The group has declared an interim dividend of 0.8 sen per share for 2Q23, bringing its y-t-d dividend to 1.4 sen per share.
Moving forward, MR DIY is hoping that its store expansion policy would continue to allow it to penetrate wider and deeper into both market centres and less urban areas to meet the needs of the underserved value shopper, which, in turn, will drive growth.
“The group’s expansion will be funded by its strong operating cash flow and net cash balance sheet position which will also support a robust dividend payout policy.
“It remains on track to open at least 180 new stores.
“This will bring the total store network to over 1,200 stores nationwide,” said the company.
The retailer opened its first store in Kuala Lumpur in July 2005.
Subsequently, it was listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on Oct 26, 2020.
The counter settled at RM1.43 yesterday, up four sen from Tuesday’s close of RM1.39.
This gave it a market capitalisation of RM13.49bil.
