The Edge Daily

Berjaya Land Bhd (BLand) has raised its interest in biolife sciences firm TMC Life Sciences Bhd to 13.71%.

The decrease in 4Q earnings was mainly due to higher prize payout and higher marketing expenditure incurred at its subsidiary Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd, BToto told Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

Consequently, its FY08 earnings per share fell to 27.6 sen from 29.05 sen. It proposed a fourth interim dividend of nine sen per share less tax, to be paid on Aug 29. The ex-date and entitlement date of the dividend are Aug 11 and Aug 13, respectively.

BToto’s FY08 revenue grew 8% to RM3.28 billion from RM3.04 billion previously.

For the 4Q, BLand’s net profit stood at RM60.76 million versus RM92.23 million a year earlier. Fourth quarter revenue rose 4.5% to RM866.83 million from RM829.36 million, while earnings per share fell to 4.83 sen from 7.2 sen.

BToto said the lower earnings were also due to lower interest income, as it no longer earned interest income from Berjaya Land Bhd upon the full settlement of the residual inter-company balance on July 30, 2007, as well as lower surplus funds retained by the group.