SINGAPORE (Nov 13): ZICO Holdings, the provider of multidisciplinary professional services, saw 3Q earnings rise 5.3% to RM1.1 million ($0.36 million) from a year ago.
Revenue for 3Q rose 9.6% to RM19.5 million from RM17.8 million in the previous corresponding period.
Led by the ATS (Advisory and Transactional Services) segment, higher revenue contributions from the corporate finance advisory services under ZICO Capital; asset management under ZICO Asset Management (ZAM) and business advisory services under ZICOInsource Inc and ZICOInsource.
Revenue from Management and Support Services and Licensing Services, (MSSL) dipped by RM0.1 million to RM5.8 million in 3Q17 mainly due to a change in invoicing arrangements largely offset by a significant increase in business by the ZICOlaw member firms.
During 3Q17, the ATS segment remained as ZICO’s largest revenue contributor, making up 70.3% of overall topline while the MSSL segment accounted for 29.7%.
Interest and Other income decreased by RM0.6 million mainly due to lower interest earned from the partial uplift of fixed deposits and lower reimbursements and management fee income respectively.
Total operating costs for the quarter rose to RM18.8 million, of which employee benefits expenses amounted to RM10.4 million. This was largely due to an increase in headcount in ATS, mainly as the group expanded into new business, ZAM, in February 2017.
Overall, in line with revenue growth, Zico registered a 4.0% rise in 3Q17 profit before tax to RM1.2 million.
As at Sept 30, ZICO’s cash and cash equivalents amounted to RM21.8 million.
Chew Seng Kok, Managing Director of ZICO, says, “We expect to further extract synergies from our complementary services across the ZICO group and the ZICOlaw network. We recently announced the appointment of former Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr Maung Maung Thein, as Executive Chairman of our subsidiary ZICOlaw Myanmar... We will continue to invest as we grow as a multidisciplinary professional services provider in the dynamic Asean region.”
Shares in ZICO closed 1 cent lower at 26 cents on Monday.
