Hidong Estate PLC on Friday said it overcame a challenging financial year to swing to a profit with increased income, but remained ‘robust’ and ‘sturdy’ despite investment losses.

The George Town, Malaysia-headquartered investment company said it swung to a pretax profit of MYR66,295, or about £11,297, in the year ended March 31, from a loss of MYR19,412 the prior year. Hidong also reported a basic and diluted profit of 0.26 sen or MYR0.0026 per share, up from a 3.99 sen loss.

Net income increased by 40% to MYR395,480 from MYR283,264. Of this, Hidong said MYR271,695 - just under 69% - was from ‘interest receivable and similar income,’ up 27% from MYR214,533. The remainder was income from investments, which increased 80% to MYR123,785 from MYR68,731.

Hidong at the same time narrowed its fair value loss on investments to MYR80,540 from MYR264,570, and its total comprehensive loss for the year to MYR76,158 from MYR332,882.

The company did not declare a final dividend for the year, unchanged from financial 2022.

Chair Chew Sing Guan said financial 2023 ‘has proven to be a challenging year’ for the company. However, he added that despite the ‘ongoing volatile and uncertain business landscape’, Hidong had ‘overcome these hurdles by tapping into our robust fundamentals and sturdy balance sheet’.

Chew further commented: ‘The board remained prudent and continued its disciplined approach by maintaining the company’s assets in liquid form.

‘With this, the company maintains sufficient levels of cash or readily convertible investments to quickly respond to opportunities should they eventualise.’

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