KUALA LUMPUR (June 28): Healthcare furniture and equipment manufacturer LKL International Bhd made a net profit of RM215,000 in its fourth quarter ended April 30, 2017 (4QFY17), a year after posting a net loss of RM612,000.

The group, which was listed on May 16 last year, saw revenue dropped 34.6% to RM6.1 million in the quarter from RM9.3 million in 4QFY16 because of lower revenue generated from medical/healthcare beds segment due to economic slowdown generally.

"The local market continued to contribute a significant portion amounting to RM4.1 million or about 67% of the group's total revenue," said the ACE-market company in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.

Its full year (FY17) net profit rose 37% to RM4.5 million from RM3.3 million in FY16, while revenue dipped 8.8% to RM33.9 million compared to RM37.5 million in the same period last year.

Moving forward, LKL remains cautiously optimistic on its performance albeit the challenging business and operational environment, and would continue to look for new growth opportunities in local and export markets.

It added that its fully automated computer numeric control punching machine (CNC) (TruPunch 2000), acquired and completely installed in 3QFY17, is fully operational whereas its CNC laser tube machine (TruLaser Tube 5000 Fiber) is expected to be operational in the second quarter ending Oct 31, 2017.

"These machines will increase the operations efficiency and process accuracy with less wastages, and reduce dependency on manual labour," LKL said.

Its joint venture with TMI Solutions (Pvt) Ltd to distribute several Nihon Kohden products started in the first quarter ending July 31, 2017 and is expected to contribute positively to the group's performance.

There was no transaction of LKL shares in the morning market trade today. The counter last closed at 27 sen for a market capitalisation of RM113.6 million. In a year, its share price has fallen 5.8%.