KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 — Proton Holdings Bhd recorded a 77 per cent increase in its pre-tax profit which reached RM100.652 million for the second quarter ended Sept 30, 2009 compared with RM56.608 million in the same quarter last year.
Its revenue rose to RM2.104 billion from RM1.846 billion.
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, Proton said its pre-tax profit was also up 43 per cent at RM165.031 million for the half-year period, compared with RM115.308 million in the same period last year.
Its revenue increased to RM3.956 billion from RM3.561 billion.
The national carmaker attributed the improved results to better overall margins following the introduction of its multi-purpose vehicle, Exora.
Its group managing director, Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir, said Proton’s sales both in the domestic and overseas markets were expected to improve with the gradual introduction of the Saga and Exora models in the global market.
“The driving force responsible for growing our domestic sales volume and market share has been our best selling models the Persona, Saga and Exora,” he said during a press conference held in Shah Alam near here, earlier today.
As for the export market, Proton would be launching the Exora in Thailand, Saga in Australia and Egypt next month.
During the quarter reviewed, Proton's domestic sales grew 11 per cent from the preceding quarter.
For the first six months of this year, Proton sold a total of 79,508 vehicles, or 29 per cent of the domestic total industry volume (TIV).
Despite a contraction of seven per cent in TIV arising from the effects of the global economic downturn, Proton’s domestic sales volume declined by only one per cent, demonstrating an increase in market share to 29 per cent compared to 26 per cent during the same period last year.
The sales of the Exora, launched in April this year, had substantially contributed to the result.
Proton said as of November 18, it has received orders for a total of 23,889 units of Exora.
The company expects to sell 155,000 units of cars in its current financial year ending March 31, 2010 with Exora expected to account for 30 per cent of the sales. — Bernama
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govt protection and subsidies. Higher margin from Persona and Exora means that it has been overpriced.
Was amazed at how Proton dropped the price of Exora to 57K to compete with Perodua Alza which is a staggering 15K from its normal version minus a few gadgets. This shows that Proton Exora profit margin is abt 15K-20K a unit. That is why Proton export models come with full accessories but priced much lower than our local market.
Sad :(