Automotive, heavy equipment, engineering and food services conglomerate RMA (Cambodia) Plc (RMAC), which has a corporate bond listed on Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), reported a sharp growth in earnings in the first half of the year despite global economic uncertainties.
According to its filing on August 23, RMAC recorded a 51.4 per cent growth in revenue to 487.1 billion riel compared to the same quarter of the year 2022 while net profit rose 25.6 percent to 43.6 billion riel from last year.
Total assets as at June 30, 2023 was 1.03 billion riel, up 15.4 per cent from 889.3 billion riel as at December 31, 2022. Meanwhile, total liabilities as at June 30, 2023 grew 7.5 per cent to 485.5 billion riel compared to 451.4 billion riel as of December 31, 2022.
Kevin Whitcraft, chairman of the board of directors, observed that the gross domestic product growth was revised down to 5.5 per cent in July from an initial 5.6 per cent growth by the National Bank of Cambodia.
The banking system has been resilient in the first half of 2023 while the non-banking sector has grown gradually, though the real-estate sector has been negatively affected.
The Cambodian economy has been propped by the growth in exports of garment and non-garment manufacturing products, services, transport and communication as well as a recovery in tourism.
“We estimate the new car market in the first half of 2023 has grown at a high single digit compared to the same period last year,” Whitcraft said, noting that last year was comparatively slow as the economy was recovering from the effects of Covid-19.
RMAC made some significant announcements in April 2023 during the launch of the after-sales distributorship of Mercedes-Benz. The Mercedes-Benz workshop is located in the state-of-the-art facility located on Hun Sen Blvd. RMAC’s Ford Division also launched the Next-Generation 2023 Ranger Raptor 2.0 L Bi-Turbo.
“In our objective of relentlessly improving customer satisfaction, we have introduced an advanced call centre utilising the latest technology to ensure fast and efficient responses and follow-up communication to customer needs,” he said.
In a previous filing, RMAC said the Cambodian car market grew by 26 per cent in 2022 compared to the previous year. Around 71,000 new and used vehicles were sold against 57,000 units in 2021.
“New car sales have increased to above 28,000 units, which represents a 43 per cent increase over 2021. The new car market in 2022 represented 39 per cent of the total market, increasing from 34 per cent in 2021. In 2022, new Ford vehicle sales were up by 31 per cent,” it said.
Through its network of affiliates, RMAC “exclusively represents and manages” brands including Ford Motor Company, Jaguar and Land Rover, Piaggio JCB, John Deere, JLG, Hako, PowerBoss, Minuteman, TCM, Megger SebaKMT, John Deere, AVIS, The Pizza Company, Swensen’s, Dairy Queen, Krispy Kreme, Bar B Q Plaza and The Coffee Club, the European Chamber of Commerce mentioned previously.
