Malaysia’s YTL Corporation Bhd posted a net profit of RM154.13m in the first quarter ended Sept 30, 2006, down 11.8% from RM174.83m a year ago.

It announced on Nov 23 that net profit from operations improved 11.5% to RM364.1m from RM326.5m. However, by excluding the group’s employees share option scheme expense of RM5.89m, the net profit from operations would have increased by 13.33%.

"This increase in operating profit was mainly attributed to the better performance of the cement manufacturing and utilities activities," it said.

YTL Corp’s revenue rose to RM1.39 billion from RM1.36 billion.

YTL Cement Bhd’s net profit dipped 5.7% to RM37.76 million from RM40.07 million despite the higher revenue. Revenue was 8.7% higher to RM283.9 million from RM261.24 million.